


Listening to Your Voice

by Animefangirl1221



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Alforan is minor, Allura and Lance are Siblings, Allura does hair, Allura is 27, Alternate Universe - Dance, But mostly fluff, F/M, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk is 23, Hunk is master chef, Keith turns into a youtuber, Lance Is Adopted, Lance and Keith are 22, Lance is a beauty guru, M/M, Pidge is 18, Pidge is hardcore gamer, Rewrite, Shallura is minor, Shiro is 28, Slow Burn, YouTube, a bit of angst, dance teacher Keith, like extremely slow burn, youtube au, youtuber allura, youtuber hunk, youtuber lance, youtuber pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-10-28 05:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10825086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animefangirl1221/pseuds/Animefangirl1221
Summary: Keith loves dancing and couldn't be happier that he has been accepted as a temporary teacher for the famous Lions Castle Dance Academy. But with this great opportunity he's had to move to a different state, city, heck even a new climate! But with all of that there's a great pro to moving nearly halfway across the States, and that's his new next door neighbor who just happens to be Keith's most recent Youtube crush Lancerella.But with everything going on and new beginnings happening, will Keith be able to befriend his crush? Will a relationship be possible before Keith's time runs out and has to return to his old life?





	1. An Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> New beginnings! I'm so sorry for that huge wait and suddenly saying that I was going to rewrite the fic! DX I've struggled quite a bit with trying to get this fic to go the way I want it too. XP I have changed a few minor things and added a bit more to make everything flow a bit better and get to the ultimate goal. :3 Please note that the POVs do tend to switch between Keith and Lance so please take care with that. :)
> 
> Thank you so much for all of your patience and I hope that you enjoy this rendition of my previous fic, 'Listening to Your Voice'!

Den-freaking-markit. This was not happening. Keith was seriously not falling for the newest rising star on YouTube and what made it worse was that he was freaking adorable. Not much in the hot department but he was the most adorable thing Keith had ever laid eyes on. YouTube's most recent beauty guru went by the channel name Lancerella. Although he hadn't been posting for long, maybe a month at the most, he had already gotten 3,000 subscribers. It did help that he had appeared on another more established beauty guru's channel, AlteanPrincess91, several times before creating his own channel and posting his own videos. As Keith researched Lancerella further it seemed that he had several YouTuber friends that he had appeared on their channels as either a guest or just caught during the filming process. Not to mention that his real name was Lance and the channel name had been a lost bet.

At the moment Keith was re-watching Lance's previous videos. The one he was watching was about an outing that he had with his friends when they went on a week long road trip. Lance was complaining about the conditions and how he wasn't able to keep up with his skincare routines when he was traveling like this. Keith laughed at the notion that any guy his age would have a skincare routine let alone one for both morning and night. Looking at the tiny digital clock in the upper right hand corner, Keith saw that it was nearly two in the morning and he had a two hour 10am class followed by the three classes he had to teach at the local dance studio. Keith groaned, closed his laptop, and set it on the desk off to his left. Grumbling, Keith got under his covers and fell asleep.

~~~

"5 6 7 8!" Keith shouted before he began moving through the simple routine he had choreographed for his 10-12 year old hip hop class. "Pop pop, slide hit, pause then drop." Keith turned to look directly at his class. "Do we need to go over it again before we try it to the music again?" There were a few 'no's and one yes. "I heard a yes, let's go over it again just to make sure that we've got it down then we'll try it to music."

Another half hour passed and Keith's class was finished. As the kids were picking up their things and heading out Keith gave them forms for their parents to sign saying that they can pay for the dance costumes. Once all of the kids had been picked up by their parents Keith was safe to head home and get started on his homework. Before he made it out of the door the owner, a pleasant woman by the name of Cassie, caught him.

"Hi Cassie, is there something you need?" Keith asked sounding confused as to why she would pull him to the side when she knew he was the average college student and had mountains of homework waiting for him at home.

Cassie shook her head. "Nah, I just wanted to tell you that there's a new opportunity that I think you might want to look at. I've found a student teacher position at one of the major dance academies a few states over. They support a wide variety of dance types and are looking for currently enrolled college students to come and help out around the school. I have an old friend that works there and she asked me if I knew anyone that would be interested." Cassie's eyes gleamed with excitement.

Keith's eyes went wide and it was taking far too long for his brain to process what exactly was going on. After a moment Keith smiled like there was no tomorrow. "Really?" He squeaked, embarrassed he cleared his throat before he tried again. "Are you serious? I mean I'd have to put my scholarships on hold while I'm gone and college in and of itself is going to be a pain to catch up on after this is all over but it's going to be so worth it!" At this moment Keith realized just how much like and over excited child he was acting as he began planning in his head.

Cassie laughed when Keith stopped talking. "You'll still need to send in an application and go through the rest of the process but I can get my friend to pull a few strings to get you in the final round of potential candidates. So don't say I've never done anything for you."

"Of course! Cassie thank you so much!" Keith said excitedly then hugged Cassie in the spur of the moment before sprinting out of the building to get home and start filling out the application.

When Keith was out of sight Cassie chuckled under her breath. "He's usually so, so reserved about things. He must be really excited about this."

~~~

Everything had been sent in and finished. The only thing left to do was wait for a response. Days turned into weeks as Keith waited for an acceptance letter of some kind. After a long and stressful day Keith picked up his mail and headed to his apartment. As he walked up the stairs he flipped through the various pieces of mail until he found a thick envelope from the dance academy he had applied for. Since his arms were full at the moment he couldn't open up the letter right then and there so he resorted to zipping up the stairs and quickly unlocking his apartment door. Once inside he dumped everything on the couch opposite of the one three of his roommates were sitting on before ripping into the thick envelope.

Dear Keith,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for one of the five student teacher positions at Lions Castle Dance Academy. Please confirm your availability by either calling our toll free number or emailing your response to the following address.

"Holy shiz you guys, I got the job!" Keith shouted.

There were several congrats from his roommates before they returned to watching tv. Keith then proceeded to gather up most of the things he had dumped on the couch and made it to his room. He had to start looking for a new apartment and packing up his stuff for the move.

~~~

Lance's face appears onscreen, his smile brilliant and there's an eager glint in his bright blue eyes. "Hey everyone! Today there won't be any tutorials or DIYs, it's more of an update on my life. Sometime this week Pidge, also known as TechnoGeek Gaming, will be getting an new roommate and I will be getting a new neighbor at the same time! Isn't that exciting you guys?! I can't wait to meet them! When they get here I'll have to introduce you guys to him. Until then I'll see you in the next video!" The footage cuts on a still of Lance winking at the camera.

Comments:

27 minutes ago • TechnoGeek Gaming~ don't scare him off before he gets here Lance. Don't you remember what happened with my last roommate?  
27 likes 3 responses

10 minutes ago • Lancerella~ That was so not my fault.

6 minutes ago • TechnoGeek Gaming~ I'm pretty sure it was.

2 minutes ago • Cooking Passion~ sorry Lance but I have to side with Pidge on this one. Jaylee was literally screaming when she left.

~~~

Today was the big day, the day that Keith finally moved into his new apartment to start his new job in a new and slightly larger city. He had to borrow his roommate Joey's car to move all of Keith's things to his new apartment. Of course Joey came along as well so he could help Keith move in not to mention that he wanted to keep an eye on his car during the trip. Both Keith and Joey had pulled out a few boxes from the trunk to drag up to the apartment. Soon they stood at a door four stories up and Keith looked at a little piece of paper that had the apartment number written on it.

"Yep," Keith finally said, he adjusted the box on his hip before continuing. "this is the right one. Thanks for helping me move Joey, I'm going to miss you when you leave."

"You can always call if you need anything. You know I've got your back." Joey grinned.

Keith pulled out the key to his new apartment and unlocked the door. Cautiously, they walked into the somewhat small living room. It was really quiet but there were some muffled sounds coming from deeper in the apartment, probably from one of the bedrooms. Keith and Joey set down the boxes that they were carrying before heading back out to the car to grab more stuff. It took another two or three trips for all of Keith's stuff to be cleared out of Joey's car. All throughout the unpacking of the car process Keith saw hide nor tail of his new roommate.

Joey stuck around a bit before leaving. He had work the next day and needed to get back in time for his shift the next morning. Not really wanting to poke around his new apartment yet, Keith pulled out his iPad and headphones out of his backpack then heading over to the couch to look through his dance video list to see which one he'd learn next. The couch Keith was sitting on was facing away from the hall that presumably lead to the bedrooms and his cat ear headphones kept all outside noise and sound from interrupting what he was listening to. Of course that just meant that he didn't hear a door open from down the hall or see the person walking towards him. Only when a flicker of movement caught his eye did he see the short brunette staring at him from the kitchen. And of course this startled Keith out of his little dance world.

As he whipped around to fully look at the other person his headphones fell off so that they now rested around his neck on his shoulders. "Oh holy-! Sorry, you must be my roommate." Keith pulled off his headphones so the they rested around his neck. “Uh, hi, I'm Keith and I just arrived here."

They snorted. "No dip. I'm Pidge." They looked around at all of the stuff in boxes stacked all over the room. "You know that you do have a room to put all of your stuff in." Pidge deadpans as they pulled out all the things needed to make a sandwich.

"Yeah, I just didn't want to go poking around and be somewhere I wasn't supposed to be." Keith said lowly, almost sounding embarrassed.

"Nah, it's fine. Just don't go messing with any of my gaming systems out here or go in my room. Abide by those rules and we'll be golden." Pidge said, they finished making their sandwich and then hoisted a box up off of the stack nearest to them then headed down the hallway to Keith's new room. “C’mon, let’s get everything in your room before you break anything."

Keith nodded and left his iPad and headphones on the couch then picked up a box himself before following Pidge. He entered into the second room on the left, the door ajar and Pidge setting down the box on the floor before turning to Keith and smiling a bit. The room itself was fairly plain with whitewashed walls, a twin sized bed and a small desk with a chair. Keith put 'get more storage containers' on his metal to do list.

"Well, this is your room. My room's on the left and the bathroom is down the hall. I don't have much going on today so I can help you unpack if you'd like." Pidge said. They were quite polite considering the sarcasm they demonstrated earlier.

"Oh, yeah, that would be nice. I have to be at the Lions Castle Dance Academy in a few hours so I should probably get everything into their places before then." Keith said as he set down the box he was carrying.

“Lions Castle?” Pidge said in a interested tone as they headed out of the room to get more boxes.

“Yeah, I got offered a temporary teaching job there. That’s why I moved out here.” Keith said, still in his new room moving boxes around to make room for more of his stuff.

“Cool.” Pidge replies from just outside of the doorway. They come in with another two boxes in their arms. “I have a friend who teaches there.”

“Really? What do they teach?”

“Mmm, I’m pretty sure she teaches ballet.” Pidge says setting down the boxes they were holding on the bed.

“That’s cool.” Keith says with a slight smile.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that she’d help you around if you asked.” Pidge says opening one of the boxes they brought in.

“I’ll keep that in mind then.” Keith said before putting a stack of clothes in his new closet.

The next few hours were spent unpacking all of Keith's things and putting them into their new places. When the time to leave slowly approached Keith changed into something a bit more worthy of his first day at the Lions Castle Dance Academy. He quickly gathered his things, put in his earbuds and headed out the door. Locking the door behind him, Keith hurried to catch the bus to the academy. Lost in the world of K-Pop music he failed to notice the two sets of eyes watching him leave from down the hallway in the opposite direction.


	2. Singing and Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Pidge's other friends and there's teasing and a tiny bit of miscommunication. Keith leaves and tries to resolve things through dance.

Luckily everything had gone smoothly at the academy, he just had some paperwork to fill out and then he'd be all good, and now Keith was on his way home. The K-Pop girl band Girl's Day was blasting in his ears. As he listened to the song he went through the motions of the dance to the song. This specific song had a more sexy vibe and dance to it. A lot of the songs he had been listening to recently had that same vibe. The apartment complex elevator dinged signally that they had arrived on his floor. Silently he walked down the hallway, humming to his music and searching for apartment number 21.

Upon reaching his front door, Keith reached into his pocket to get the key to his new apartment. His phone repeated the song and he sang a few lyrics as he unlocked and opened the door. With his headphones on and music blasting, Keith was unaware of just how loud he was singing and of the audience that was listening. Walking into the living room Keith finally noticed the others sitting and playing on one of Pidge's gaming systems. Keith froze and stared wide eyed at the visitors sitting in the living room for a couple of seconds before unfreezing and making a beeline to his room. No freaking way that someone had heard him singing. His mind completely ’noped’ out of the situation. On his way to his room he let out a few choice words in Korean then shut the door harder than normal.

Meanwhile in the living room, Pidge, Hunk and Lance were staring down the hall where Keith had disappeared. The only sound that could be heard was the game's pause menu soundtrack. The three sat in slightly stunned silence.

"Well at least he has a nice voice." Hunk said breaking the stunned and now slightly awkward silence.

"The heck was that?" Lance nearly yelled, he was half laying on the couch while sitting on the floor. He turned to Pidge for an explanation. "Is you're new roommate from another country?"

Pidge rolled their eyes at Lance’s reaction. "His name is Keith and he spoke English just fine earlier. I guess he wasn't expecting visitors." Pidge said in an informative tone. Then a thought came to them. A sly smile and narrowed eyes made it clear to the others that there was going to be mischief managed. "I bet he was embarrassed about us hearing him singing."

Lance liked where this was going. He smiled along with Pidge. "You know what, you're right.” He glanced back down the hallway to where Keith had disappeared.

Hunk finally got what they were hinting at. "Oh." He said flatly before objecting. "Oh, ooooh no. No nononono, we all agreed not to scare off the new roommate this early in the game. You know this is why I'm the voice of reason for the two of you." Hunk moved to get up off of the couch and drag Lance back to their apartment. 

"Awww, c'mon Hunk." Lance whined from his position on the floor. He flopped his head into Hunk’s lap so as to prevent the other from getting up and denying him and Pidge their fun of teasing Pidge’s new roommate. "Let's go tease the newbie just a little bit." Lance looked up at Hunk with his best puppy dog eyes.

Hunk was about to refuse, seeing as he was now mostly immune to that look from Lance, but when Pidge joined Lance with their own set of special Hunk-convincing puppy dog eyes stuff was going down. There was a battle of wills as the two stared up at their Polynesian friend. Hunk tried to hold out for the new guy but ended up breaking in the end. When Lance and Pidge won the two scurried over to Keith's room. When they reached the shut door they could hear music leaking from the cracks. It was bass boosted and in the same language Keith had been speaking. They crouched a bit to listen to the strange music coming through the door.

"The heck is he listening to?" Lance whispered to Pidge while trying to decipher what was going on behind the closed door.

"If I had to guess I'd say he's listening to Korean pop or K-Pop for short." Pidge answers back in a low tone. A few of his fellow gamers were into that kind of music so it was familiar sounding to say the least.

Lance was about to say something but at that moment the door opened, revealing Keith behind it. He was dressed in looser black pants, a pair of red Adidas Classics on his feet, and a red sleeveless crop top that hugged his upper torso. ('Almost sinfully so' Lance thought.) He stared down at the crouched invaders of privacy before speaking. "You guys are the worst at trying to be sneaky." He stared directly at Pidge before continuing. "I'm heading out to the gym down the street. I won't be back for a couple of hours. Don't mess with my stuff." And with that Keith shut his bedroom door and left the two standing slack jawed in the hallway. As he approached the living room he saw the third person from before. He looked at him for a moment before speaking. "I'm sorry that I startled you earlier." Then walked out of the apartment, on his way to the gym.

No one said anything for a few minutes before Lance turned to Pidge. "Bro, you're roommate is freaking hot!"

That statement alone was enough to make Pidge burst out laughing and Hunk face palming.

~~~

Keith was breathing hard from the exertion he was putting his body through. Dancing was not only a means of making money and making a living for himself, but it was also an outlet for his emotions and a way to cope with change and just life in general. His forehead was beaded with sweat and his bangs were covering bits of his vision. He made a sound of annoyment before walking over to the small gym bag he had brought with him and pulled out a white headband. Slicking back his hair before placing the headband to keep the strands in place, Keith thought about the person that stood with Pidge in front of his door when he had opened it. At first he didn't recognize him but when he was halfway to the gym it dawned on him. The tan Hispanic that had been there with Pidge was, in fact, Lancerella aka Lance. Each time he would remember what had happened Keith would blush then aggressively try to shove the memory away.

Keith walked over to the stereo that his phone was hooked up to and changed the song to Worth It by Fifth Harmony feat. Kid Ink. The song blared over the speakers and Keith got into position. The cover he was dancing was by a YouTube dance group named 1MILLION. Their videos were pretty popular and they were nicely choreographed. Although Keith preferred to dance to and choreograph K-Pop songs, 1MILLION did a really nice job with more mainstream American music.

As Keith went through the motions and movements of the lead dancer he could feel himself finally starting to loosen up. The stress that had pent up in his shoulders over the past few days of getting everything finalized and moving into his new apartment had finally started to lose its grip. When the song ended, he waited a few seconds until the next one started. This time it was Daddy by Psy feat. CL. Another 1MILLION choreographed song. Keith sighed and got into position.

After an hour or two Keith headed home. He would've stayed longer but it was his first day at Lions Castle tomorrow and he didn't want to lose much needed sleep. During his time at the gym he was able to choreograph a few routines for his classes and brushed up on some of his not so well used skills. Keith finally reached his apartment and walked in. Inside he found Pidge sitting on the couch with half a sandwich hanging out of their mouth and playing a game on their X-Box. A pair of gaming headphones over their ears, the attached mic off to the side of their face. They nodded to Keith, the motion knocking the half eaten sandwich out of their mouth and onto a plate in their lap.

"Hey Keef." Pidge said around a mouthful of food. They chewed a couple more times before swallowing. "Sorry not sorry about earlier. That's kinda just how we are so you'll just have to get used to it."

"It's fine. I was just a little high strung from everything that happened over the past few days." Keith dumped his bag on the closest chair then headed to the fridge. He pulled out one of the Powerades he had bought earlier that day along with his favorite energy drink Voltron. "I guess I wasn't quite prepared to me my YouTube crush." Keith muttered. He didn’t mean to say that out loud but hoped that he had said it low enough that Pidge didn’t hear. Sadly, there was no such luck.

The game was paused and suddenly there was a figure looming over Keith. He closed the fridge and was confronted by Pidge. "I heard that." They said, their arms folded across their chest and a smirk played on their features. Haha, there was no getting out of this anytime soon.

Keith gave a start before blushing. He turns away to fiddle with the drinks in his hands. "I didn't say anything. You're just imagining things." Keith frowns a bit before cracking into his grape flavored Powerade. "Besides, how could you have heard anything when you had your headphones on? Aren't they noise cancelling?” Keith huffed a bit from how nosy his new roommate was. Guess he was going to have to get used to it from now on if he was going to continue living here.

"Yeeeaaaah," Pidge dragged the word out in a slightly sing songy voice. "but I knew you were talking to me so I shifted the right ear cup off of my ear so I could hear you." Pidge smiled mischievously. “And I’m glad I did."

Dang it.

There was no way of really getting out of this conversation but Keith would rather not talk about this right now so he opted to ignore Pidge and head to his room. Taking his drinks and picking up his bag, Keith walked down the hall. He was almost to his room when he heard Pidge following him. He was almost to freedom when Pidge shouted at him from down the hall.

"There's no way you're getting out of this conversation mister!" They shouted not far behind Keith.

Keith paused in his doorway and poked his head out to look directly at Pidge. The smug look was still there on their face. Keith put on a sly smile his own and chuckled a bit. "Watch me."


	3. Beauty Tips and Teasing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance does some spying and Shiro interrupts. Later Lance and Allura bond over face masks and beauty products while Lance gets teased.

When Lance and Hunk had deemed it to be late enough for them to need to leave it was just past 10pm. It wasn't necessarily really late but Pidge didn't want the two of them still in the apartment when Keith came back. So there Lance was, sitting on his and Hunk's shared couch. A couch cushion clutched to his chest and thoughts frantically racing through his head. All he could think about was Keith and only Keith. Which was terrible for Lance because that meant that he was going to have to put off his regularly scheduled video posting until a later date when he wasn't completely obsessing over the guy next door.

Lance could hear Hunk in the kitchen making something. It smelled delicious but at the moment nothing could take Lance's mind off of Keith. Hunk was right when he said that Keith had a nice voice. But when he stood there towering slightly over Lance in that hallway, dang. He may have been dressed to go work out at the gym but who dresses like that for a work out? It wasn't like Lance was complaining though. That crop top left very little for the imagination but dang, there was no refusing how toned and lithe Keith was. A voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Lance!" It was Hunk from the kitchen. "Dinner's ready so come dish yourself up. I have some stuff to do so I'll see you in the morning."

Lance looked over his shoulder to see Hunk disappearing into his room with a plate of food. When Hunk's bedroom door shut Lance returned to his position on the couch. Maybe he should at least try and update tonight. Lance sighed as he buried his face into his pillow. What in high heavens is he going to do about this?

~~~

The next time Lance saw Keith he was on his way back from the cafe he was a regular at. Lance watched, with a latte in hand, as Keith hurriedly shut and locked the door to his apartment without so much as a glance in Lance's direction. Lance was curious as to why Keith was in such a hurry this morning so naturally he followed Keith. Of course if he was going to follow Keith that means that he'd possibly be late for his lunch date at Lions Castle with his older sister Allura. Exactly how late he was going to be depended on how far Keith was traveling and how lost Lance got in the process. But you know that saying about the cat and curiosity and dying. But hey, Lance was an impulsive person, so why not. 

~~~

Keith was worried that he was going to be late. Of course he wouldn't have been except that he had to avoid and evade Pidge all morning which made it extremely hard for him to get ready and out the door on time. He had just barely made it out of the door when Pidge came running out of their room to corner Keith but found it was too late. Keith booked it out of the apartment complex and down to the bus stop. Luckily he made it just in time to catch the bus and was soon on his way to Lions Castle. And of course he was unaware of the person trailing him.

After a few stops Keith got off and proceeded to walk the rest of the way to the dance academy. Keith had his earphones on and was listening to his k-pop dance mix at the moment. Currently the song I AM THE BEST by 2NE1 was playing. His phone cycled through a few songs before he reached the front door of the impressively huge dance academy. Pausing his music and pulling off his headphones so they rested on his shoulders, Keith drew in a deep breath and pulled the door open. Inside he was met by a ginger haired man at the front desk. He looked up and saw Keith. He smiled warmly and Keith gave him a small and slightly nervous smile.

"Hello!" The man said in a loud and somewhat heavily accented voice. "You must be Keith. I'm glad that you took the offer for the temporary teacher position. My name is Coran and I'll be showing you around and such." Coran came out from behind the tall mahogany desk and extended his right hand towards Keith. "It's very nice to meet you." Coran says with a smile. 

Keith took it and gave a firm handshake. "Yes, thank you so much for this opportunity. I look forward to the next year."

Around the corner not too far away was someone spying on the two. Lance watched Keith and Coran talk to each other for a bit before moving down a hallway. Lance was going to follow them but a firm hand on his shoulder prevented any further spying. Lance yelped a bit at the sudden contact and whipped around to see who it was. There was a soft low chuckle as Lance recognized the mysterious stranger.

"Lance are you trying to peek at Allura's dancers again? You know that they can beat you to a pulp with their toe shoes if they catch you. Not to mention the guys can literally break you in half if they wanted." Shiro chuckled again.

Lane frowned then smiled slyly. "But Shiro, I can't help myself! I am just drawn to beauty. Whether it be male or female. Beauty is beauty, pure and simple." Lance launched into a soliloquy centering around the subject at hand. At the end of his spiel Lance stuck his tongue out at Shiro. "And it's not like I haven't worked with all of them for years or anything. But ah, the beauty of dance."

Shiro rolled his eyes and interrupted when Lance started on just how beautiful each dancer was when in their element. "Alright Lance, enough of that." There was a slight pause before he continued. "Besides, why are you here so early? Your lunch with Allura isn't for another," he glances at his phone for the time. "hour and a half. Aren't you usually filming during this part of the day?"

"Ah, yes, that." Lance said awkwardly. "Usually yes I'd be filming but I had a more important matter to attend to."

"Such as peeping on the dancers while classes are still in session?" Shiro asked with a slightly accusing tone. One eyebrow arched up, just asking for Lance to convince him otherwise.

"That, sir, is not entirely accurate." Lance crossed his arms and turned up his nose before continuing. He cracked open an eye to look at Shiro. "I was following Pidge's new roomie. I saw him talking to Papa. Do you know anything about it?"

Shiro shook his head and hooked his left thumb in the front belt loop of his pants. "I haven't heard anything. Maybe Allura knows. Her current class should be ending in a few minutes. Why not go and ask her?"

"Maybe I will. Thanx Shiro." Lance departed with a smile then headed over to Allura's classroom seeing as he had nothing else to do and he had lost Keith.

Upon arriving at Allura's studio of a classroom Lance could hear some sort of Classical music playing over the speakers and Allura counting out the beats like an Australian metronome. Lance opened the door just a crack so that he could see Allura standing not too far off with her back facing him. He inched the door wider and slipped in as quietly as he could. Several teenaged dancers were bounding and twirling across the dance floor before being replaced by several others with dance partners.

There was a sudden decrescendo in the music and a couple danced to center stage and engaged in a pas de deux. It was beautiful and elegant to say the least. It was something that reminded Lance of when he was a young prodigy ballerino. But after an accident and a long term injury, he was forced to put that dream behind him at the young age of 16. Of course it was because of said incident that sparked Lance's interest in makeup and beauty techniques in general. Hours in bed lead to watching YouTube for hours on end and inspired him to become a YouTuber himself. Allura had been a fairly popular beauty guru during her last year of high school and throughout her first years of college. Recently she had started posting less and less due to the major ballet recital coming up within a few weeks. Lance had silently taken it upon himself to carry on Allura's legacy when life said that she couldn't film and post videos anymore.

Soon the music ended and Allura was complimenting her dancers and told them that class was now over and to rest up. The room erupted into quiet toned talking and the occasional giggle as the teens gathered their things and headed out. Lance leaned against the door jam and waited for the others to leave.

Allura turned to Lance and smiled. "Well isn't this a rare treat. My brother, the one that regularly sleeps til noon, is early." Allura teases, a joking smile pulled at the corners of her mouth.

Lance rolled his eyes and walked over to her. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. At least I'm better than how you used to be at my age Miss I'm-staying-up-all-night-and-then-sleeping-til-late-afternoon. I don't care if you had graveyard shifts most of the time at that job. It shouldn't be humanly possible for any one person to sleep basically all day and then stay up and work all night. It did unspeakable horrors to your skin and you know it." Lance slung an arm over his sister's shoulders and smiled like the idiot Allura knew him to be at times like this.

Allura laughed. A light sound that carried youth and life to all that heard it. "Alright. I actually don't have any more classes til 2 this afternoon. So do you want to grab something to eat and then head over to my house? I have a few new products that have been waiting to be tested for the past couple of days." Her eyes sparkled a bit at the prospect of a shared review of beauty products that they were sure to love.

"Heck yeah! You know I would never turn down new products! What're we waiting for? Shiro to jump through the door and sweep us off our feet? Let's go!" Lance exclaimed excitedly nearly dragging Allura to the nearest exit.

Allura laughed and followed Lance's impatient tugging. "Alright, alright. We have to make sure to get something to eat before we head over to my house."

"Yeah, no problem. Let's just get going!" Lance said, blindly agreeing with Allura. With all of the excitement that came with new products and a shared review video, Lance completely forgot to ask Allura about Keith and why he was here.

~~~

It was nearly afternoon and the two siblings were relaxing in Allura's living room. Both had green tinted face masks on and hair pulled back. After filming the first half of the video that consisted of introducing themselves and the products they were testing, talking about said products and then finally trying them out. The masks they were wearing required a dry time of at least 20 minutes and the two were contently munching on the Costa Vida they had picked up on the way.

It was at that moment that Lance remembered what he was going to ask Allura before she had suggested trying out new products and they had become wrapped up in their own little sibling world. Lance looked up from his phone and set his fork in his dish that rested on his chest. "Hey 'llura. Do you know anything about new people being hired at Lions Castle?"

Allura hummed as she looked up from her laptop, most likely editing what she had already filmed, and looked over at Lance who was sprawled out over one of the arm chairs with his feet and head dangling over the armrests. "I heard that there were some temporary teacher positions opening up, but I didn't know that they had already hired people to fill in those positions."

"Huh." Lance grunted. He stared up at the ceiling. "One of them is Pidge's new roommate. I've met him once and I guess he's Korean? I'm not sure, but he listen to K-pop and he looks freaking hot in a skintight crop top."

"Ooooooo!" Allura teased sounding like an elementary student that was teasing their friend over their crush. Lance opens his mouth to try to respond but Allura continues. "You like him don't you?" Lance snapped his mouth shut and Allura laughed harder at his reaction. "Haha! You like, like him!"

"I do not!" Lance tries to object but a blushing red face under the beauty mask and eyes avoiding hers confirms what Allura says.

"You so do too! You so like, like him!" Allura laughs more. It takes a minute but when she finally seems to settle down she continues to ask questions. "Sooo? What's his naaaamme?" She drags out her words in a teasing fashion.

Lance moves into a sitting position before answering. He sets his dish on the low coffee table between them. Lance frowns slightly. "Keith." He mutters. 

"What? I can't hear you. Speak up." Allura says when she can just barely hear his voice.

"His name is Keith." Lance manages to say in a louder voice.

Allura hears him that time. "Dawww. That's such a cute, old fashioned name. Have you talked to him at all?"

Lance slumped in the armchair and stared at his lap. He shook his head signaling that he hadn't really actually talked to Keith per se.

"Boiii. You need to talk to him if this little gay crush is going to go anywhere." Allura says in a completely serious tone.

Lance became exasperated at his sister's persistence of the topic and decided to change it. "Enough about me. What about you and Shiro?"

Allura hums thoughtfully. "We've been good. Shiro brought me a bouquet of flowers last week to celebrate our six month anniversary. He was so sweet and he was a blushing mess because he accidentally came to visit me in the middle of one of my classes."

Lance chortled a bit at the thought. Shiro maybe a professional photographer and an accomplished artist with artwork in several galleries over the state. But when it came to dating Allura and just girls in general, Shiro became a blushing stuttering mess. Allura found it adorable and Lance thought it was the sweetness and the thought that counted.

Lance tried to smile, but found that his cheeks were much too stiff to convey much emotion. The face mask must be completely dry then. "Hey Allura, I think my mask is dry. You?"

Allura poked at her cheeks experimentally before giving Lance a nod. "Yep. Mine too. Alright let's get this stuff off and see just how beautiful our skin is!"

"I bet mine with sparkle after this." Lance says with a small grin as they went back over to record the last half of the video review.

"You always sparkle. It's a sign that you're either gay or a vampire." Allura teased as she turned on and set up her camera.

"Maybe I'm a gay vampire and you just didn't know it yet. Well, no, I'd be a bi vampire thank you very much." Lance said as he sat down in his selected chair.

"Either way, if you were a vampire, bi or otherwise," Allura started then paused as she adjusted the lighting in the room. "dad and papa would have found out when they adopted you."

Lance stared at her with narrowed eyes. "Touché. But what if I was turned into a vampire during high school and you just never noticed."

"I'm pretty sure I would notice if my baby brother suddenly stopped eating dad's made-from-scratch Alfredo." Allura says with a knowing and bright smile.

"Fine." Lance huffs. He folds his arms over his chest and makes a somewhat angry pouty face. "You win this one."

"You should've known you were going to loose from the start."

"Shut up."

"Nope. As your older sister I reserve the right to tease you as much as I want." Allura continued to smile brightly. "Now smile you're on camera!"

Then they recorded the rest of the video with no shortage of inside sibling jokes and jabs toward each others channels. It was all very lax to say the least and it made Lance smile. He missed spending this kind of time with his sister.


	4. Keith Can't Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith can't escape the conversation and he can't game to save his life. Now Pidge has control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are getting spoiled so bad. -w- Four chapters in a day. I'll leave it here. :3 I hope that everyone is enjoying my rewrite of this fic!

Keith's first day at Lions Castle Dance Academy was mostly just a run down of how the school generally worked, introductions to the other hip hop instructors as well as a tour of the school. Keith found Coran to be quite pleasant and lively. He enjoyed the older man's company and looked forward to working with him in the future. Just before he was able to leave to go home, Coran said that he could sit in a class to get the feel for how another instructor worked with the kids and teens that attended. Keith accepted and stayed as long as he could just so he could avoid Pidge waiting at home. But the day came to an end and Coran excused him and said that his first class was tomorrow at 11am.

The bus ride home was antagonizingly short compared to how it was this morning when he had been in a rush. Soon he was standing in front of his apartment door and was loathing the harassing he was going to get from Pidge as soon as he opened the door. Keith let out the breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to calm the racing of his heart and thoughts. Then in a bought of courage, Keith unlocked and opened the door. Cautiously, he peeked into the apartment. It was mostly silent and there was no sign of Pidge. Keith had taken two steps into the living room when the door slammed behind him. Whirling around in somewhat fright Keith caught sight of Pidge. Fear and terror settled in the pit of his stomach. He may have evaded Pidge somewhat efficiently yesterday but there was no way Keith was possibly getting out of this alive.

"We're having this conversation now." Pidge stepped forward and Keith stepped back.

"You know what? I'd rather not. In fact let's never have this conversation. Let's just take those pesky memories and lock them away with the key lost in the depths of the ocean." With each passing second, Pidge would take another step forward whilst Keith stepped back.

"Nope there's no backing out of this." Pidge said in a slightly lower tone.

And with that Keith turned and high tailed it to his room. Well, at least he tried. He didn't make it too far because Pidge had been preparing for this fight all day. Pidge tackled Keith to the floor, they were surprisingly strong and skilled in the art of taking people down to the ground. Keith let out a loud 'oof' as he hit the floor with Pidge on top of him. Keith tried to scramble and get up but Pidge would have none of that. They pinned Keith's left arm to his back and pushed his face into the lovely glossy hardwood floor. Keith called uncle and tapped out. Pidge didn't believe him and kept ahold of Keith's left arm but released their hold on his head.

"Say it." Pidge deadpanned all the while still sitting on Keith's back.

"Say what?" Keith asked sounding slightly smushed.

"You know what. Say you have a crush on Lance! Admit it and this'll all be over." Pidge said as they started to struggle keeping Keith in their grip.

"NOPE! THAT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN." Keith yelled into the flooring.

Pidge placed their hand back onto the back of Keith's head. "SAY IT AND THIS'll ALL BE OVER!” There was a slight hesitation and then a yelled, “MOSTLY."

Keith gasped from the pressure Pidge was putting on his body. He was starting to see stars after a bit of oxygen deprivation an the weight of Pidge on his back. He thrashed around a bit, trying to get Pidge's grip on him to loosen so he could escape. But every time he tried anything Pidge would adapt and would somehow get a stronger hold on Keith.

"Stop trying to get away." Pidge said in a slightly raised voice. "I ain't letting go til you admit you have a crush on Lance!"

Keith stilled, gasping breaths coming from his mouth. "Screw you!" He wheezed.

"Ha! You're funny." Pidge laughed bitterly.

Keith couldn't take it anymore. Pidge was uncharacteristically heavy and his arm was starting to ache from the angle Pidge held it at. "Fine!" He shouted, finally breaking. "I like Lance. But that's all I'm going to say!"

"Eh, good enough." With that Pidge jumped off of Keith's back and returned to the game they had abandoned in favor of harassing Keith.

Keith gasped as soon as Pidge's weight disappeared. He flipped over so that he was now laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. He laid there spread eagle on the floor of the small entryway for a few moments before trying to get up. As he sat up his back popped harshly and his muscles groaned.

"You are a terribly horrid person." Keith said as he stood up using the small table to his right to support himself.

"Yeah, but I get things done." Pidge's voice was a bit hard to hear over the sounds of gunshots and people shouting orders and coordinates. 

The game paused and Pidge set down the controller. They flipped around so that their arms were hanging off the back of the couch and their chin rested on the headrest. They stared at Keith as he tried to get back to a somewhat properly functioning state.

"Heeey." Pidge called out lazily from their position on the couch. "I still haven't recorded my gaming segment for this week. You wanna do a multiplayer game with me?"

"Why in high heavens would I want to play a game with you when you almost popped my arm out of its socket and nearly crushed my ribcage?" Disbelief colored Keith's voice as he glared at Pidge.

Pidge shrugged. "Cause if you win I'll leave you alone about the whole crush on Lance thing."

This sparked an interest in Keith. "And if you win?" He questioned carefully. He was wary about striking any sort of deal with Pidge.

Pidge grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "If I win then I get to meddle in your love life as much as I want."

Keith became ghostly pale as he thought of the consequences if Pidge were to win. There was a bit of silence as Keith contemplated the pros and cons of the deal Pidge had presented.

After a long stretch of silence Keith finally answered. "Deal."

Pidge grinned wickedly. "Ooooh. This is gonna be sooo much fun."

~~~

The opening credits for Pidge's channel plays showing a montage of snippets of the most popular/memorable moments and videos from their channel. After the little montage we see the main screen for Overwatch. Two little video screens in the top corners show two faces. On the right is Pidge with a wide grin that hinted towards a special treat for this video and wearing their signature green and white gaming headphones. In the top left corner there was a somewhat uncomfortable looking Keith. He was wearing his own headphones that are ironically the red version of Axent Wear's cat ear headphones.

“Hello hello my little Techies! Tis I TechnoGeek and I have a special treat for all of you!" Pidge glanced at Keith and their smile became that much wider. "This here is my new roommate. Say hi to everyone roomie!"

Keith shifted around uncomfortably. "Hi everyone. I'm Keith, Pidge's new roommate."

"Keith and I have a deal. If he wins two out of three rounds of any game I choose then I can't bug him about a certain YouTuber." There's a bit of protest from Keith but Pidge shushes him and moves along. "And if I win then I get to bug him allllll IIII waaaaant~" they drag out the words in an attempt at provoking Keith. It works and Keith silently glares at Pidge. "Now doesn't that sound fun my Techies? Also I've been meaning to play Overwatch for a while and Keithy-boy here gave me the perfect opportunity." Pidge clicks around and starts the game. "So Keith, do you know anything about Overwatch?"

"No, I don't game very much and now I'm regretting my decision to accept your deal." Keith huffs, clearly unhappy about the situation he put himself in.

Pidge laughs. "Well then let's see how you do. Here are the ground rules; 1) one of our teams have to claim victory at least twice for you to win the game 2) you can't use the same hero twice and 3) clean language cause I'm pretty certain Matt is watching this." Pidge's video feed expands to fill the entire screen. "Hi Matt!" They wave and smile to the potential viewing from their brother. Then the video feed goes back to the right corner. "Now let's get to it!"

The video jumps to the two picking their characters. They're both mumbling as they go through the characters available.

"I literally have no idea what I'm doing so let's go with spider goggles chick." Keith says plainly as he picks Widowmaker.

"I think I like this guy here. He looks cool." Pidge says as they pick Soldier 79.

The video continues and shows Pidge totally kicking butt while Keith is still trying to figure out what the heck is going on. There is much yelling from Keith as he dies multiple times and gets maybe three kills in the first round. Keith slips between English and Korean as he yells. Probably covering the colorful language he was shouting. To no one's surprise Pidge's team takes the first round. There is much button mashing and freaking out from Keith. There's a solid 30 seconds to a minute of Keith just saying 'Ahhhh' in various volumes, swinging from a monotone lower note to a higher more desperate one, and trying not to die so early in the round.

“I don’t understand what’s going on!!!” Keith screams as he gets pinned down by some of the other members on Pidge’s team.

Pidge laughs. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon enough. But will it be enough to beat me?”

“Shut up! I so hate you at this moment for roping me into this.” Keith randomly shoots at the other team, finally getting a kill in this round before getting killed again. More Korean follows.

“I’m pretty sure that you’re using your mother tongue to swear just so you don’t get disqualified.” Pidge smiles wickedly as he captures Keith’s team’s objective only to have the other team win at the last second. “Fuuuuuuudge!” Pidge yells as they stare at the screen.

Keith laughs and the game continues to the last round. This round isn’t as close as the last one and Pidge steals this last game. With the victory banner displayed on Pidge's screen they throw up their hands and yell in triumph. They laugh while Keith groans, head in hands. He knows what happens now and loathes the consequences that will undoubtedly follow.

"I won!" Pidge yells. "I won and that means I have control over your love life gossip!"

"Please just kill me now." Keith mumbles through his fingers.

The outro music starts playing in the background. Pidge is still smiling like an idiot. "Nope! I will make you suffer!!" Pidge laughs again before turning to look directly at the camera. "Alright, I'll see you all in my next video. Until next time my little Techies! TechnoGeek out!"

The screen changes to one that links the viewers to a video where Pidge is guest starring on Hunk's channel. Pidge is up to their elbows in dough while Hunk is off to the side trying not to laugh.

Pidge looks directly at the camera. Flour is all over them and something is smudged on the lenses of their glasses. "I literally have no idea what I'm doing."

The music cuts off and there's a little snippet of Pidge teasing Keith after they had technically stopped filming. Pidge is still grinning and Keith can be heard in the background.

"I'm so going to tell him." Pidge says looking over at Keith who is off screen.

Keith's voice is slightly muffled from the mic not getting a clear recording. "No you're not!"

Pidge looks back at the camera. "I so totally am." Then the video ends.

Comments:

20 minutes ago • Cooking Passion~ You guys look like you're having fun. :)  
57 likes 6 replies 

18 minutes ago • Lancerella~ that game looks a ton more fun than when you made me play one of your stupid horror games! btw who's the YouTuber you mentioned?  
22 likes

14 minutes ago • TechnoGeek Gaming ~ that's for me to know and you to find out!  
37 likes

10 minutes ago • Lancerella~ not even a hint? D:

8 minutes ago • Cooking Passion~ I'm pretty sure I know who it is. ;)

6 minutes ago • TechnoGeek Gaming~ I'm pretty sure you're guess is correct.

2 minutes ago • Lancerella~ YOU GUYSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! TTT^TTT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please please please leave a comment and kudos! I love talking and interacting with y'all! :D


	5. Meet the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special Thanksgiving chapter for y'all!
> 
> Keith plans to spend Thanksgiving alone but Pidge and Allura have other plans for the two crushing idiots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family so this is me coping for this year. Plus who doesn't love more cute Klance moments and family shenanigans? XD

It had been about a week since Lance had tried (and failed at) spying on Keith and everything had settled down more or less. Lance was sitting out on the couch editing his newest video when the doorbell rang. Lance assumed that Hunk would answer it but remembered that he was studying for his finals before thanksgiving break and was not to be disturbed. The doorbell rang again and Lance shifted to get up. He placed his laptop on the couch to his right and stood up so as to answer the door.

"I'm coming! I'm coming." Lance called out tiredly it was just past ten in the morning but Lance had gotten very little sleep the night before. When he unlocked and opened the door he was greeted to the sight of a shorter girl with dark green hair and black roots. A tan face was stretched into a smile and her gold hoop earrings swayed a bit as the girl held up a plate covered in tin foil.

"Hi Lance!" She said in a cheerful voice.

"Shaaaay!" Lance shouted before hugging Hunk's girlfriend. "It's been awhile! I thought you would be heading out to visit family by now! Please, come in!"

Shay took the invitation and walked into the apartment. "I would be but I have to wait for Hunk to finish studying so we can head out together." She handed Lance the plate she had been holding. "Here, this is for you. I didn't know what your plans were so I made you some of my famous fudge cookies."

"Shay you're so sweet." Lance gushed. He walked into the kitchen and placed the plate on the counter. "I'm actually going to be spending thanksgiving with my family. Shiro's going to be joining us this year too so it'll be a busy day. Papa refuses to let anyone help with the cooking, other than Aunt Lucy mind you, even though dad usually ends up sneaking in a helping hand or two."

Shay chuckles a bit. "That does sound nice. I have a bit more of a hectic family to return to so wish me luck. Especially since this will be Hunk's first year spending thanksgiving with my family as well."

"I'm sure nothing will go wrong. Hunk is just a huge teddy bear and can make a mean mousse pie." Lance says as they both smile.

"Are you guys talking about me behind my back?" Hunk says as he comes out of his room with his suitcase trailing behind him. He smiles when he sees Shay. "Hey baby." Hunk murmurs as he kisses her lightly on the cheek.

She giggles and takes his suitcase. "I'll pack this in the car. You," she pokes his chest. "go finish getting ready. We have a four hour drive ahead of us."

"Alright. I'll meet you down at the car." Hunk says with a smile and Shay disappears out the door, closing it behind her. Hunk turns to Lance. "You should see what Keith is doing for thanksgiving. From what I hear he's going to be spending it alone here seeing as Pidge is flying out tonight to spend the rest of the week with their family."

Lance blushes. "B-but isn't meeting the family like a second or third date thing?" He stutters a bit from the sudden suggestion.

Hunk laughs and claps Lance on the shoulder. "I never said anything about it being for romantic reasons." He winks and then turns to go back to his room and put his shoes and coat on.

Lance stood there for a moment, mouth flopping open and closed like some sort of land fish before settling on staying closed. He was about to say something when his phone buzzed in his pajama pants pocket. Lance pulled out his phone and read the message that had been sent to him. It was from Allura concerning about tomorrow's events.

-Space Princess- are u bringing Keith tomorrow?

Lance frowned a bit. Why was everyone wanting him to bring Keith to thanksgiving at his house?

-ThenamesLance- No. I haven't asked him if that's what you're implying.

-Space Princess- well you better get on that because I already told dad and papa that you were bringing someone tomorrow. ;)

Lance nearly screamed at his phone. Was Allura serious?! Did she seriously do that without at least consulting him first?

-ThenamesLance- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! You told dad and papa about Keith?!

Space Princess- Not necessarily. I mean all I said was that you were bringing someone. You can bring Hunk or Pidge if you want.

-ThenamesLance- they already have plans!!!

-ThenamesLance- it's almost like you set this up. >>>:(((

-Space Princess- love ya bro!

With that Lance huffed angrily and threw himself on the couch. After a minute he heard Hunk come out from his room and he glanced up from his despair.

Hunk waved to Lance as he opened the door. "I'll see you on Sunday Lance. Please try not to burn the building down or murder anyone over the break!"

Lance flopped back down on the couch and raised his hand to wave his goodbye. "No promises! See you Sunday!" Lance shouted after Hunk as he close the door. Suddenly is was too silent for Lance's comfort but he didn't feel like getting up to do anything at the moment. So he stayed there, not moving.

After a couple of minutes Lance finally got up and continued editing his video. It was a good half hour or so when he finished and the video was up to his expectations and standards when he posted it. Shortly after the video being posted there was a knock at the door. Lance got up again to answer it. On the other side of the door was Pidge. Not wanting to deal with any teasing the younger probably had up their sleeve he shut the door almost immediately. There was an irritated 'hey!' and then the doorbell rang continuously for five seconds before Lance opened the door again. This time Pidge looked annoyed and glared at Lance.

"You know it's not nice to shut the door in someone's face like that." Pidge huffed.

"It's only nice if it's you. What do you want?" Lance says as he leans on the doorframe and has his right hand on the door as if trying to block Pidge from looking into the apartment.

"As you probably know, I'm heading out to visit my family in Vermont for Thanksgiving." Pidge starts. Lance nods his acknowledgement recalling what Hunk had said earlier. "So I asked what Keith is doing and apparently he's staying home and eating TV dinners all weekend. Can you believe that? TV dinners for thanksgiving."

"Yeah yeah, TV dinners. Now get to the point." Lance says with a little bit of a bite in his words. He wasn't necessarily liking where this conversation was headed.

"Well I know that you always have an extra chair at your family table so I texted Allura and she said that Keith is more than welcome to join you guys for thanksgiving!" Pidge says with overjoyed tone that screamed 'I did this because I love torturing you but you're still my friend!!'

Lance's eyes went wide and before he could react Pidge was already gone and the door to their apartment was slamming shut. As soon as the door sounded Lance jumped into action and ran to the next door apartment. So that's what Allura meant when she had texted him earlier that morning! Lance scrambled to get to the door and banged on it.

“Pidge get out here and let me strangle you!!” Lance yells and to his surprise the door opens almost immediately but it’s not Pidge on the other side.

Instead there stands Keith with an extreme case of bed head and dressed in a overly large black t shirt that said ‘I’ll stop wearing black as soon as they invent a darker color’, a pair of baggy red plaid pajama pants, and bare feet. He looked up at Lance through bleary eyes and stared at him for a bit, blinking every once in a while. Lance guesses that he had woken up not too long ago and had gotten out of bed to see what the commotion was all about and ended up answering the door.

“Lance? What’re you doin’? You’re too loud..” Keith whines slightly from his groggy state.

From somewhere within the apartment Pidge yells, “Keith! Lance says that it would be great if you went with him to have Thanksgiving with him and his family. I think you should totally go!”

Keith looks confused as he looks over his shoulder to find where Pidge was hiding. Lance on the other hand had become a fish with a gaping mouth. He tries to say something but Keith turns back around and squints at Lance.

“Hey, that’s great and everything but I don’t want to impose on you or your family.” Keith says sounding a bit uncomfortable.

“Oh, you wouldn’t be imposing at all!” Pigde shouts from behind. “Allura agreed and you don’t go against her!”

“Oh, um,” Keith responds sounding unsure about the entire situation he had been placed in. “o-ok. When did you want to head over? We can leave today if we need too.”

Lance finally unfroze from where he had been standing throughout the entire exchange. “We, we don’t have to leave today, my parents live close to this area so we can leave tomorrow. I don’t usually leave until noon seeing as that’s when the parade ends.” Lance says awkwardly as he slowly recovers from the slight emotional rollercoaster he had just ridden.

“Parade?” Keith asks still squinting at Lance.

“Yeah, the Macy’s Day Parade. It’s been a tradition of mine since I was a kid and when I moved out I continued it.” Before Keith could respond Lance asked a question. “Are you supposed to be wearing glasses? Is that why you keep squinting?”

“Oh, yeah. I usually wear contacts but I took them out last night. I can’t see shiz right now.” Keith says as he looks away from Lance. A light blush spreading over his cheeks.

“Oh.” Lance says then stays quiet from not knowing what to say next.

There was a bit of awkward silence before Pidge butts in again. “Kay, bye Lance! Keith will see you tomorrow at 12:30!” Pidge reappears behind Keith and pulls him into the apartment before shutting the door in Lance’s face.

“Well that was not what I expected to happen this morning…” Lance mutters as he makes his way back to his own apartment to prepare for mess that will surely ensue tomorrow.

~~~

Lance had woken up earlier than normal the next day so that he could watch the parade on the tv while he ate breakfast and got ready to head over to his parents’ house. It was just past noon when Lance finished getting ready and was ready to head out when he remembered the cookies Shay gave to him yesterday and that he still had to go pick up Keith before he left.

Sighing, Lance knocked on Keith’s apartment door. It took a minute or two but Keith opened the door and smiled a bit nervously. He was dressed in a fairly good sized red parka and a black handmade scarf and hat combo. Black skinny jeans hugged Keith's legs perfectly and Lance struggled to keep himself from grabbing those perfectly toned buttocks. Keith held a covered dish in his hands the contents a mystery to Lance.

“Hey.” Lance says sounding a bit less awkward than yesterday.

“Hey.” Keith says still sounding just as uncomfortable as he was yesterday. He raised the dish in his hands. “I um, I made something for tonight if that was ok.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine I doubt Papa wouldn't make enough food for a small army but I guess it’s the thought that counts.” Lance smiles brightly and Keith blushes.

Keith walks out into the hallway and locks the door. “Shall we get going?”

“Yeah, but just a fair warning; my Dad and Papa are just like any other nosy parents and they’ll ask you a bunch of questions. Papa will more than Dad though. He’s always been a bit on the eccentric side of the spectrum.” Lance explains as they head out to the bus stop in front of their apartment complex.

Keith smiles. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“Also I have several relatives and their kids visiting for the weekend so there’ll be a surplus of people roaming about and screaming children most of the time.”

Oh dear. Keith hoped that he could make it through this dinner alive.

~~~

It took the two a half hour to get to Lance’s childhood home and another minute and a half to be swarmed by relatives that had traveled from around the country to come home for Thanksgiving. There were so many new faces and names that Keith became overwhelmed easily. He clung to Lance a bit seeing as he was the only familiar person the entire household. Usually Keith wasn’t bothered by the crowd of people but it was just so loud with everyone crammed into one house. Even if said house was a two story building with vaulted ceilings and large open gathering spaces. There was loud laughter that could be heard echoing around the house and there were children’s screaming accompanied by their own laughter. It was all extremely new and it frightened Keith a bit seeing how different it was from his last Thanksgiving that he had spent with his foster parents and their small extended family.

Suddenly Lance disappeared and Keith was left alone at the entryway to a large living room that had football blaring from the huge flatscreen tv mounted on the opposite wall. Keith stood there awkwardly, not knowing where he was supposed to go. Then there was a hand that appeared on his shoulder and Keith jumped a bit and whipped around. His eyes fell on a familiar face.

“Shiro! What are you doing here?” Keith smiled, no longer feeling out of place.

“I’m here to meet my girlfriend's family.” Shiro smiled a bit before pulling Keith into a hug. A little girl about six years old ran past them screaming as a boy about the age of ten chased her. "It's pretty crazy in here, isn't it?"

Keith nodded, a slightly nervous expression on his face.

“Shiro, who’s this?” A feminine voice asked.

Keith looked at the newcomer and saw a tall woman with a slight but strong build. Her silver hair had barely showing black roots and had been pulled up into a messy bun. She had blue eyes and a sparkling white smile. She was dressed in a loose beige colored cashmere sweater, white jeans, and brightly colored stockinged feet.

“Allura, this is Keith, we were next door neighbors while I was in high school.” Shiro introduced then turned back to Keith. "It's nice to see you again. I haven't seen you since I graduated high school. How've you been?"

"Ah, well I was placed into another foster home after you left for Garrison and I stayed there til I graduated. I haven't seen you in forever. I missed you when you left." Keith says bluntly.

"Yeah," Shiro says sounding a bit embarrassed. "I got into an accident early on in my first tour so I was sent back home. Hence why I have a prosthetic arm now." Shiro holds up his right hand for Keith too see.

Keith's eyes widen a bit before softening. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. What have you been doing recently then? Seeing as being a fighter pilot didn't quite pan out like you wanted it to."

"Well I took up art to help me get through my days and release stress. Then suddenly it exploded and I was making my living painting and doing photography."

"That sounds crazy." Keith smiles.

It was then that Allura interrupted the two. She offered her hand to Keith. He shifted the dish he was holding so as to shake her hand. "Any way, I'm Allura, Lance's older sister. Did you want me to take that to the kitchen?" She motioned to the dish Keith was holding.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot I was holding this." He handed it to Allura and she disappeared off to the kitchen.

Lance decided to reappear at that moment. He looked to be a bit stressed and was a bit out of breath, probably from trying to chase kids or evade overly excited relatives. "Hey Keith! Sorry I ditched you there for a bit, I had to say hi to everyone, but hey! You found Shiro, he's dating my older sister." Lance smiled and gave Shiro a fist bump. "How you guys holding up? Usually there's not so many people here for thanksgiving, they usually all come out for Christmas."

Keith shrugs and Shiro gives a small smile.

"I'm not used to so many people but I'll manage." Shiro says. "I think I'll go look for your sister. I'll see you two later at dinner." And with that Shiro left the two in search of his girlfriend.

Lance turned to Keith. "C'mon, I should introduce you to my dad and papa."

Lance and Keith found the two in the large kitchen. The taller, darker skinned man with silver grey hair had his arms wrapped around the shorter man's waist as his chin rested atop ginger orange hair. When Keith saw the smaller man he recognized him as the Director of Lions Castle Dance Academy.

"Coran!" Keith shouted in surprise on instinct.

The ginger haired man looked up to see Lance and Keith walk into the open kitchen/dining room area. Coran's face lit up at the sight of the boys and the other man smiled softly. Coran left the kitchen wiping his hands on his slightly stained apron and greeted the two. The other tanner man followed closely behind.

"Lance my boy! You finally made it!" Coran said loudly as he basically crushed Lance in a bear hug. The other man chuckled as Coran pulled back and turned his attention to Keith. "Keith! It's such a nice surprise to see you here!" He pulled Keith into a slightly less crushing hug before pulling back. The other man put his arm around Coran's waist.

Lance cleared his throat. "Keith this is my Papa," he motioned to Coran. "and this is my Dad." He motioned to the other.

The taller man held out his had to shake Keith's. "Alfor is just fine. Would you mind me asking how you know Lance?" Alfor's voice was low and gentle. It set Keith at ease just listening to him.

"We're next door neighbors. Pidge is my roommate." Keith answers respectfully.

"He also works at the Academy, Alfor. He's one of the people I brought in for the temporary teaching positions." Coran added.

Alfor nodded then smiled gently. "Well, we're glad to have you here for this wonderful holiday. Please, mingle with the others. I know Lance has that certain charm that steals all of the attention but you'll find that we all are a pleasant group. Coran and Lucy should have dinner ready in a few hours."

Lance blushed at his father's accusation but kept quiet about it. "I can introduce you if you want Keith."

"Um, yeah, that would be nice." Keith says as Lance leads him away from the kitchen.

The rest of the afternoon and into early evening was spent socializing and trading funny family stories. Keith laughed so hard at the one about a six year old Lance throwing a fit and attempting to survive on his own outside. But when it started pouring out and he got hungry he came running back inside crying his eyes out. Coran took care of a sopping wet and sobbing Lance and the story ended on the note of Lance deciding that he would make his bed every morning instead of having to live out in the rain.

Soon Shiro and Allura joined their conversation and Shiro told stories about the ever so awkward pre-teen Keith. Of course everyone stared a bit at the both of them when Shiro told them about how he and Keith would have competitions about who had the sharpest eyeliner. Lance took particular interest and told Keith that he had to show him just how on fleek his eyeliner was. Keith stuttered a response and turned redder than before. The group laughed light heartedly and Shiro continued to tell stories. On a number of occasions it ended with Keith refusing to verify Shiro's stories and blushing a deep beet red. Lance teased his about how much dirt he had on Keith now and everyone had a good laugh when Keith half heartedly tried to beat up Lance for that comment. Sooner than Keith would have expected, everyone was called into the large dining area and they all sat down to eat.

The dinner was delicious and the people ever so lively. There were always at least four conversions going on at all times during the dinner. Keith had three servings of just about everything and was feeling completely stuffed when Coran, Lucy, and some of the other aunts came out with a line of assorted pies as well as a few other kinds of desserts. Even with how full he was feeling Keith made room for two slices of pumpkin pie and a slice of banana cream. When everyone had finished Keith had offered to help with dishes and Coran recruited Lance to help as well.

Between the three of them dishes were finished quickly and they all returned to socializing with the rest of the family members. Football had been switched out for the Peanuts movie 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving'. At this point in time Keith had to excuse himself to use the bathroom. When he came back he was wearing rectangular black wire rimmed glasses. Several people questioned why he was wearing glasses. Keith told them that he usually wears contacts during the day but prefers to wear his glasses during the evening because they don't irritate his eyes as much. The night continued on and soon the children, as well as Keith, were starting to fall asleep. Alfor recommended that Lance and Keith stay the night seeing as they had missed the last bus back by two hours and it was unlikely that Keith would be able to travel much in his present state. Keith had fallen asleep at this point. His head rested on Lance's shoulder, his arms were loosely folded across his chest and there was no sound from him other than his deep and even breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a comment and a kudos! I love reading your feedback and being able to make this fic better an it already is. ^w^
> 
> Also I have a nice head cannon about Keith with glasses and it makes me so happy. -w- Here's the only pic I could find of just Keith with glasses so please enjoy! Just, just Keith wearing glasses holy frick he's so cute but he's freaking hot at the same time. Like oh my gursh he's soooooooo hoooooooot.......  
> http://chishionrnr.tumblr.com/post/149067739190/whats-your-opinion-on-keith-with-glasses


	6. Black Friday Traditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, Keith experiences more McClain family traditions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Black Friday shopping is ridiculous. I've kinda over exaggerated my personal experiences to write this chapter so I hope y'all like it! ^w^

Keith woke up to a bustling house and muffled noise from beyond an unfamiliar closed bedroom door. He looked around for his glasses and a clock. He found a clock before he found his glasses. Bringing the clock extremely close to his face Keith read the time and it was ridiculously early in the morning for this much buzz and activity. 5:32 in the morning was a time when sane people were sleeping. Definitely not up and about. Keith groaned and put the digital clock back on the small nightstand he had found it. Suddenly it hit him. He wasn't back in his apartment. He wasn't in his bed and this most definitely was not his home. Bolting upright Keith took in the sight of the new room as best he could considering that he was nearly blind without his contacts or glasses.

He could tell that there were posters of some sort covering most of the walls and several neatly framed and hung pictures. There was a desk with a roller chair on a plastic mat to keep the carpet from being damaged. A walk in closet was left slightly opened and had more posters covering the door. And in the middle of the floor there was a pile of blankets and pillows. Keith got out of the bed he had been previously sleeping on to examine the pile more closely. Upon closer inspection Keith found Lance sleeping underneath the mass of blankets.

Keith poked Lance in the face once...twice........ Lance groaned and blinked open his eyes. He gave a bit of a start when he saw Keith but then relaxed when he realized who was hovering over him. "Keeeeeith. Why are you wakin' me up so early?" Lance whined, his words slurred slightly from sleep and closed his eyes again. 

"Why is there so much noise this early in the morning? Is your family made entirely of morning people?" Keith questioned. Obviously the morning people comment didn’t apply to Lance seeing he was still in bed right now. "Also where are my glasses? I can't see crap right now."

Lance shifted under his blankets before answering. "Mm... 's probably cause of Black Friday. Papa's always been one to buy a crap ton of stuff cause of all the sales and crap. Used to be Grammy. Now lemme go s'eep Keef." Lance rolled over and fell back asleep.

Keith tucked that bit of information away, then frowned at the fact that he still didn't know where his glasses or his sweater with his contacts were but didn't want to wake Lance again. Guess he'll just have to deal with being blind for the foreseeable future. He stands up and tries to search for his glasses. It takes him about ten minutes of blindly searching before stumbling upon them on the desk next to his sweater and the dish he had brought with him yesterday. Keith puts on his glasses and tip toes to the door, careful to not to step on Lance who's sprawled out on the floor. Cautiously, Keith opens the door to find an empty hallway. Padding down said hallway and then down the stairs where Keith finds himself in a hurricane of activity as the extended McClain household prepared for the new day. Keith picked his way through the chaos and found himself in the kitchen/dining area. Coran was there slicing up fresh fruit while Alfor was attending to something in a large pot. There were several children and teens sitting at the bar ranging in ages from about four to sixteen. All of them were in some state of sleepiness from being woken up so early in the morning. In total, they took up eight of the ten bar stools. Coran started dishing up the fruit to the kids at the bar. That's when he noticed Keith skirting around the edges of the loose crowd and weaving through the other adults standing randomly throughout the the room.

"Keith! I'm glad to see that you're up and awake enough to join us! We're just getting breakfast done so why not have some? The first shift of Black Friday shopping will be starting soon and we're going to need your help watching the younger children. That is if you don't mind too terribly." Coran says in a cheery tone that does not belong to anyone before 10am and their third cup of coffee or energy drink.

Alfor looks over his shoulder to his significant other. "Leave him alone Coran. He's just woken up and hasn't eaten yet. Not to mention Lance is probably still sleeping." He continues to stir the contents of the pot in front of him.

"You're right." Coran says in a more mild tone then suddenly yells, "Alisha!"

A teen with darker skin and extremely curly brown hair pulled up into a puffy ponytail came into the kitchen. She looked to be fully awake and ready to go. "Yes Uncle Coran?" She asks, her voice doesn't hold any hint of being tired or sleepy.

Coran nods at her response. "I need you to go wake up Lance and tell him to get his tush down here or I'm sending Allura up there with the bucket. Chop chop!" Coran then ushered the teen out of the kitchen and off to wake her cousin.

It hadn't been more than a minute between the time Alisha left to the time Allura came wandering in. And of course not too far behind her was Shiro, both of them still dressed in pajamas and sporting custom styled bed heads. Keith shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot a bit when he realized that he was still in yesterday's clothes. So to somewhat try to calm his nerves he took one of the remaining two bar stools. Allura smiled sleepily at Keith then yawned.

"Morning Keith." She said as she yawned. "Oh goodness. It's much too early for any of this but Papa insists that we do this every year." Keith hummed and slowly blinked his eyes trying to get them to stay open. "It used to be Grammy that would get us all up and moving but when she passed away a few years ago I guess the responsibility was unanimously put onto Papa and he's done a wonderful job keeping all of the traditions straight and getting everything organized."

Shiro comes up behind Allura and gives her a sleepy peck on the cheek. He wraps his arms around Allura and rests his chin on her shoulder. "Yes." He says in a low sleep-ridden voice. "And he does a wonderful job at that."

Allura was about to respond but Alisha came back into the kitchen and beelined it over to Allura. "Allura, Lance won't get up and Uncle Coran said that you could do something with a bucket?"

Allura smiled evilly then looked to Shiro. "Shiro darling, would you like to help me wake my dear baby brother?" Shiro looked uncertain but agreed anyway. He knew better than to refuse when Allura became this way. Allura's smile became wider. "Great! Then let's go get Lance."

And then she was off with Shiro following her. Keith had a bad feeling and decided to stay out of this. Not two minutes later there was a high pitched screech and angry yelling that followed. Soon Allura was racing through the kitchen and a sopping wet Lance wasn't too far behind.

"Allura!! I will get you back and it doesn't matter if I have to break into your house!!" Lance yelled.

Several people were shoved out of the way in Lance's attempt to get ahold of his sister. Multiple yells could be heard throughout the house marking the two siblings' route through the house. The two did something like a dance. Allura jumping around and evading Lance whereas the other tried to keep up and grab at his sister. This little dance went on until Alfor grabbed Lance roughly on the shoulders and brought him to a standstill. Coran tsked at Lance and lightly smacked the back of his head.

"Lance! You know that you're a part of this tradition just like anyone else. Now hurry fast as get ready. It's almost time for the first shift to head out and I need you to watch your cousins." Coran chastises. He glances over to where Keith is sitting, watching everything unfold. "And would you be a dear and loan Keith some of your clothes? The poor boy can't be forced to wear the same clothes two days in a row." And with that Coran turns his attention to making sure that everyone has gotten breakfast.

Alfor moves so his left hand is placed lightly on his son's right shoulder. "Best not to keep your Papa waiting Lance. Off you go." Alfor says with a knowing smile.

Lance grumbles and leaves to go get ready. Keith watches with sleepy eyes. He flopped down on the bar so that his head was buried in his arms and groaned. It seems that it was going to be a loooong day.

~~~

Keith had never been Black Friday shopping but he didn't plan on doing it again any time soon. All of the stores were ridiculously crowded and horrendously loud. Keith regretted taking the offer to go out shopping sometime around noon instead of just staying with some of Lance's relatives back at the house and watching the younger children. But of course you can't say no to the people that extended their hospitality to you. Not to mention that one of them is basically your boss. So Keith bared through it. All he did was drive around with unknown relatives to multiple stores and help carry everything back out to the cars. It was exhausting. When the sun started to set and the crowds started to lessen, the McClains finally called it a night.

They had all converged back at the house and had mostly leftovers for dinner. Most of the younger cousins were in the living room watching a movie whereas the majority of the adults were still in the dining room conversing and bragging about the sales they had found and their other various shopping tales.

Keith sat in the corner of a couch and watched the movie with the younger McClains. He was sitting peacefully when something flickered at the edge of his peripheral vision. Looking to the side he was startled to see Lance there with his camera. Keith gave an unmanly squeak before smacking the camera out of his face.

"Hey! Don't treat Josey like that!" Lance said sounding mildly angered. He stood up and coddled his camera as if it was his child. 

"Then don't stick it in my face!" Keith retorted while staring up at Lance from the couch.

Lance made a mocking face. His features scrunched up and lips pulled into a pucker. "What's the matter? You camera shy?"

"No, you're just annoying." Keith mildly glared at Lance.

Suddenly there was someone tugging at his pant leg. Keith looked down to see Alisha laying on the floor and staring up at him and her cousin. She had a huge smile spread across her face that could possibly rival Pidge's.

"Are you guys daaaaaaatiiiiiiing?" She asked in a slightly teasing tone with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Upon her saying that Keith's face quickly became red and he stuttered out a response. "N-n-no! Why would you think that? We've only known each other for-"

Lance interrupted his voice slightly shaky as well, "like two months at the most!"

Alisha's grin became wider. "Awww, you guys finish each other's sentences! You guys are so a couple."

"Alisha leave us alone." Lance said in a low warning tone.

Alisha just shrugged then flipped onto her stomach and literally slithered away. Once she was a safe distance away from them the two boys found themselves in a very awkward situation. Lance tried to say something multiple times but then kind of just gave up and left. Keith had curled himself into a ball and watched the rest of the movie peering over his knees and through his bangs.

~~~

A few hours later Keith and Lance said their goodbyes and left to catch the last bus back to their apartment complex. The bus ride home from the McClain household was much less strained and awkward than either thought that it would be. Neither of them talked to the other. They had settled into a comfortable silence. Keith only said something when they were at their apartment doors.

"I'm glad that you invited me over for thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun." There was a slight hesitation before he continued. "I'll see you when I see you I guess." And with that Keith walked into his apartment and locked the door.

Outside in the hallway stood a slightly stunned Lance with warmth welling in his chest. He stood there and started at the door Keith had disappeared behind. Still stunned a bit, Lance walked into his own apartment. Once inside and alone he sighed a sigh saturated with lovesickness. Dang it. He was falling for Keith and falling hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanx so much for reading! Please leave a kudos and comment! I love hearing from you! ^w^


	7. Dancing Partners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance drools, Keith catches him, and they go out to lunch. Back stories are revealed and possible feels?

Saturday had come and gone and now it was Sunday. At the moment Keith was helping Pidge unload all of their stuff from the taxi they took from the airport. Pidge was talking nonstop about everything and anything that had happened while they had been with their family and Keith kinda just tuned them out. It took them a few trips to get everything out of the taxi and up to the apartment. Apparently Mrs. Holt had sent back several gifts with Pidge for Lance, Hunk, and surprisingly for himself. After everything had been brought up to the apartment Pidge settled on the couch while Keith went to the kitchen to get dinner started. Pidge continued to babble about family members and certain events that had happened over the weekend and Keith continued to tune them out for the most part. It wasn't until Pidge said something that finally caught Keith's interest as he was cooking.

"So how was your thanksgiving with Lance?" Pidge asks from their position on the couch in the living room. They sounded like a mother asking her child how school went. 

Keith had been making a salad for a side dish and stopped chopping up lettuce to look over at Pidge for a second. Once he had mostly gotten over the fact of what Pidge had just asked Keith answered. "It was fine. Lance has way too many people in his family. That was really the only downside." He then went back to chopping up the lettuce and putting it into the colander so it could be washed before eaten.

"Just fine?" Pidge pressed.

Keith hummed. "Yep, just fine. Did you think something would happen?"

"Yeah." Pidge deadpanned. "I thought you would've made a move or something." They sounded slightly disappointed but other than that there was no emotion in their voice whatsoever.

Keith did a kind of spit take without the awkward spray of liquid from his lips and flipped around to stare at Pidge. The knife Keith had been holding clattered to the countertop with a metallic clang. Hearing the reaction made Pidge all the more sure that something really had happened during the holiday festivities. They turned around and stared at Keith with a smug smile plastered on their face.

"Oh ho?" A teasing note now colored their voice. "So something did happen? Are you sure that thanksgiving was," Pidge brought up their hands and did air apostrophes. "just fine?"

"You know what? I don't like where this conversation is going. You can finish dinner. I am leaving now and there's nothing you can do that will get me to come out of my room before morning. I will see you never. Now goodnight!" Keith left the kitchen and retreated to his bedroom.

"You know that you can't hide from me forever!! I won these rights when you totally failed at Overwatch!!" Pidge yells at Keith's retreating back. "Oh, this is so much fun." They muttered to themself.

~~~

Keith got through his workday and was left in his studio alone. Deciding that this would make an idea opportunity to just dance and get at least some of the stress out of his system. He stashed his bag in a corner and pulled his phone out, looking for a song that caught his eye.

As he scrolled through his extensive K-pop library he came upon Happiness by Red Velvet. It was a song that he had found during one of his mindless wandering through YouTube journeys. He didn't know the dance very well because he’d watched the dance video maybe two or three times before. But this is a good place to practice with the mirrors and large space that his current apartment could ever provide.

Soon the music starts and Keith goes through the motions the best he can. He puts quite a bit of sass in his movements so as to cover up the more obvious mistakes. The song was really fun to dance to and it made Keith love dancing even more.

~~~

Lance had been summoned to Lions Castle for some sort of request from his Papa. At first he had grumbled because he still hadn't gotten this week's video recorded. He had been heading back after running several papers and packages to several teachers and classrooms before his Papa let him go on his way. As Lance walked through the hallways slightly familiar music reached his ears. It sounded kind of like music Keith had been listening to when he had first moved in. Lance followed his ears and found himself standing just outside of one of the slightly smaller studio classrooms. Lance opened the door just a crack and what he saw surprised him to no end.

On the other side of the door Lance saw Keith dancing. His movements graceful and fluid yet punctual and exact at the same time. It was the most beautiful thing Lance had seen. Ok, well, one of the most beautiful things he had seen. And as such he just stood there and stared wide eyed, like an idiot…

Suddenly the music went from the happy jumpy beat to something more serious and, dare he say, sexy? Lance watched as Keith put as much sass as his lithe body could. Then before Lance could pick his jaw up from off of the floor the song shifted back into its happy jumpy ‘I’m dancing and you can’t stop me’ beat. Soon the song was over and the two were left in an empty silence. Keith got up from his crouched position and Lance just about fainted.

He didn't realize just how long he had stood there until he was face to face with Keith. With the opportunity to sneak away gone and a slightly awkward friendshipy thing between them there was only one thing Lance could possibly say at that moment.

"Boi, you can move." And as soon as that came out of his mouth Lance wanted nothing more than to shove the words back into his mouth and smack himself. He freaking sounded like a stereotypical gay guy.

"Uhh, thanks, I think." Keith says in an unsure tone. "It's kinda what I do for a living."

"Yeah, I-I knew that." Lance says trying to bounce back from the awkward moment. "Do you, maybe wanna, I don't know, maybe get a coffee or something?"

Keith smiles a bit and nods. "Sure. Coffee sounds great although a sandwich or something sounds better."

Lance smiles. "Alright then, we can go out and get lunch."

"Sure, where do you want to go?" Keith asks as he turns off the studio lights and locks the door.

"Mm, we can go anywhere really. Why not Chik-fil-a? It's fairly close." Lance suggests as the two walk down the hallway.

"Sounds good. I haven't had Chik-fil-a in forever." Keith smiles a bit more.

~~~

Keith and Lance had ordered and gotten their food. Now they were sitting in a booth and were eating quietly.

“So how has working at the Academy been?” Lance asks as he finishes off his waffle fries.

Keith looks up from his sandwich and swallows what he has in his mouth before answering. “It’s been fine. The kids are great and they actually want to learn the dances whereas my old classes had a hard enough time paying attention. It’s a really nice change. Not to mention that it makes it a lot easier to get to know all of the kids on a more personal level.”

Lance could tell that Keith just absolutely loved dancing and it made him feel sad that he couldn’t dance like he used to. "I used to dance too. Although it was quite a few years back.” Lance picks up his soda, almost as if he was trying to hide behind it, and takes a sip.

Keith arched his eyebrows in interest. "Really? What kind of dance did you do?"

"Promise you won't laugh?" Lance says in a semi serious tone. He sets his drink down and Keith nods with a ghost of a smile. "I did ballet mostly. There were a few times that I was offered roles with traveling troupes but Papa and Dad decided that a fourteen year old boy should not miss out on school activities and learned social skills for ballet.”

“Sounds like your parents were right. Why in the world would you want to give up homework and the chronic depression of middle and high school for the amazing opportunity to travel around the country and do what you love?” Keith said sarcastically earning himself a few chuckles from Lance.

“It wasn’t the most ideal thing to a young teen me but I guess it really was for the best. If I had gone then I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to know Hunk or Pidge and have the kind of friendship that we have now.” Lance smiles fondly at memories of the past.

“Do you dance anymore?” Keith asks then pops a waffle fry into his mouth.

“No, not anymore.” Lance says in a sad tone. “I got an injury that ended my ballet career when I was eighteen.”

“What happened?” Keith asks before realizing that Lance may not want to talk about it. “I mean if you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

Lance smiles sadly and takes a breath. “We were rehearsing for a really big show, it was going to been with all of the scouts from around the country. About two weeks from the first show I gotten a car accident with my Dad. Ironically we where on our way to the theater when someone ran a red light and hit us on the passenger side. Luckily no one died but I was pretty beat up. Shrapnel tore through quite a few muscles and tendons. I have a rod in my right leg from where my femur broke in two places. There was quite a bit of therapy that was needed after I started healing more. Doing every day things was extremely difficult for a while but in the end I made a full recovery. But there are just some things that would never be the same. I can still dance but I can’t to do what I used to.” By the time Lance finished his story he had a sad, reminiscent smile and a slightly regretful shine in his eyes.

Keith felt a bit sympathetic towards Lance. If it wasn’t for dance Keith didn’t know if he would have survived all of those years bouncing around in foster care. It was the one and only constant during his younger years.

“You should come dance with me sometime.” Keith was surprised by the words that had come out of his mouth.

Lance stared at Keith with a shocked expression then it morphed into a gentle smile. “I don’t think you’ll want someone who can’t do all of the ‘cool things’ to dance with you.”

Keith snorted a bit at that statement. “There’s quite a bit more to dancing than the ‘cool things’.” Keith said in a slightly derogatory tone with mock apostrophes. Then he got a bit more serious. “It’s an expression of feeling, emotions that you can’t quite put into words. You can dance like the dork you are and still get your feelings across.”

“Is that how you delt with being in the foster system?” Lance asked softly. Keith was startled by the question and made immediate eye contact before shifting his gaze elsewhere. Lance's eyes went a bit wide before rushing into another sentence. “I’m so sorry, you don’t have to answer that. I mean I heard from Allura that you knew Shiro from when you were with a foster family next door. I assumed that’s why you got into dance in the beginning.” Lance trailed off and there was a bit of awkward silence between the two. “Sorry for bringing things up that you might not want to talk about.”

Keith had been startled by how meek and innocent the question sounded. He looked up at Lance, a sad smile ghosting over his lips. They met gazes and Keith could see the concern shining in Lance's eyes. He paused before giving an answer. "Yeah. My parents died in a shoot out when I was five. I stayed with my grandmother in South Korea to age seven then when she died I got passed around for a year between relatives here in the States til I was eventually placed in foster care when I turned eight." Keith stared down at the floor again. "I bounced around to several foster homes. The one I stayed at the longest was when I was neighbors with Shiro. After he graduated and left for Garrison I was shuffled off to two other homes before I turned eighteen. I got a job, started college, and things lead to more things and that's how I got here.”

Keith waited for the ‘I’m sorry’ that most people responded with but it never came. Lance sighed and smiled at Keith with his own sad tinged smile. “I guess that’s what would’ve happened to me if my parents hadn’t adopted me.” A surprised look passed over Keith’s face before a thoughtful one took its place. Lance laughed lightly and a glow returned to his eyes. “I know you’re probably like ‘But you look so much like your dad and Allura! How could this possibly be?!’ Well, yes, I do look quite a bit like them but I was adopted from Cuba.” Lance laughed, this time sounding a bit nervous. “I guess I should start with Allura. Allura's biologically dad's. When her mom died our dad confided a lot in his best friend, our papa. They dated for a few months before getting married. Allura was eight when papa move in with her and dad. Another year and a half later they adopted me. I was three by then. When they adopted me they bought the house that they're in now. From there I grew up and was surrounded by family and friends. I know that I didn't go through what you did and I never knew my parents so I can't even begin to think about the pain that you felt when you went through that. But I was bullied in elementary school for being adopted. They told me that my parents didn't want me. That I was just garbage they threw away. I can't tell you how many times I came home crying from being bullied and was consoled by my parents and Allura. Other than that I had as much of a normal life as I could." A low chuckle rumbled through Lance's chest. "And so I guess that's my life story. But the point of this is that I guess it doesn't matter about whatever you're going through or what you've been through, it's your choice to make the best of it and choose your own happy ending.”

Keith smiled, the last words that Lance said made it feel like there was a tiny sun blossoming in his chest. A warmth that Keith was sure he would never want to let go. Suddenly Lance picked up his lunch tray with all of the wrappers that were left from his lunch and got up to throw them away. He came back to the booth where Keith was still sitting and pick up his overcoat.

“I have to get going. Allura invited me out to her place for some sibling bonding time since we didn’t get to talk with each other that much over the holidays. I’ll see you later?” Lance asked with a hopeful look. Keith nods and proceeds to gather the remnants of his own lunch. “Great! Bye then!”

And with that Lance left Keith there at the Chik-fil-a with confusing feelings swirling around in his heart and head. Keith stood up, threw his trash away, and then left as well. All the way home he tried to get his rapidly beating heart to calm down but it was no use. Could he possibly be..?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was almost finished with this chapter really early this morning but my computer freaked out and died and when it came back on IT ERASED ALL OF THE CHAPTER THAT I HAD WRITTEN OVER THREE HOURS. I HAD A BIT OF A PANIC ATTACK BUT IT'S OK NOW.
> 
> Thank you all for all of your support! Please comment and leave kudos! The more you leave the faster chapters will be posted! I love y'all and I'll see y'all next time!


	8. Gingerbread and Decorations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holiday stress is real. Keith doesn't really like the holidays. And it's all because of his childhood. Hunk, Lance and Pidge decide to pull Keith into their tradition of decorating the Christmas 'tree'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me as I scream into the void trying to get my creative juices flowing. T^T *Christmas music plays in the background*

Now that the craziness of Thanksgiving had subsided the insanity of Christmas permeated the air. With twenty days left until Christmas everyone was going bat crap crazy. Keith was having a hard enough time getting his younger dancers to focus long enough to teach them their final routine before the break, with the anxiety and excitement that Christmas provided it was now down right nearly impossible to get anything done. Luckily, the majority of his classes were more composed of older students that could restrain themselves from becoming completely unfocused. He did have three younger classes that were mostly the cause of his holiday stress. Lucky for Keith that with Christmas came a two week long break from school to rest, relax, and get ready for the next semester.

Keith walked into his apartment to find Pidge, along with Lance and Hunk, setting up a massive Christmas tree in their living room. There were boxes of decorations scattered about. Various colored twinkle lights were hung up on the walls, garlands strung across every doorway, the tv displayed a fireplace and played soft Christmas music. Upon seeing everything Keith froze for a moment before heading straight to his room.

"Keith! Come help decorate!" Keith heard Pidge call after him.

"I don't do Christmas!" Keith responds from down the hall before shutting his bedroom door.

There was a moment of quiet before Keith could hear someone make their way down the hall and stop in front of his door. Keith ignored them in favor of getting changed out of his work clothes and into something more comfortable. Keith had just pulled his oversized red sweatshirt over his head when the person outside of his door finally spoke.

"Keith~" They singsonged. "Come decorate the tree with us!"

An annoyed frown set itself on Keith's face when he opened the door. On the other side stood a tall Latino with a huge grin and tinsel draped over his slim tanned figure. "No Lance. I'm not going to get involved with your Christmas shenanigans. Call me Scrooge but I hate Christmas." Keith pushed past Lance and made his way to the kitchen for a snack and a Voltron.

Lance followed Keith back out to where the others were and grouped them together. Whispering between themselves, Keith could tell something was going to happen and he wanted no part of it. But before he could retreat back to his room Keith was grabbed and held against his will as he was wrapped up in a colorful string of lights.

"Augh! What are you guys doing?!" Keith yelled as Pidge put an angel tree topper on top of his head like a kind of hat.

"Hurry! Haul him over to an outlet!" Pidge says between giggles.

With Keith protesting the entire time, Hunk picked him up and moved him over to the wall. Keith nearly toppled over when Hunk set him down but was caught and held steady by Lance. Keith blushed a bit at being so close to Lance but was quickly back to loudly complaining when Pidge started to hang ornaments from the wire he had been wrapped up in.

"Pidge what the actual frick are you doing?" Keith asked in an obviously annoyed tone.

"We're making you into a Christmas tree since you don't want to help us decorate the other one." Pidge says with an impish smile as they hang a snowman ornament off of Keith's left shoulder.

"Here Pidge, every tree needs at least one strand of tinsel!" Lance says in a light and teasing tone.

Much to Keith's dismay, Lance draped silver tinsel over Keith's shoulders and wrapped the ends around his upper torso. Next it was Hunk's turn. With a glowing smile, he wove a string of popcorn into Keith's hair.

"C'mon guys, popcorn is the way to go." Hunk said. They all stood back to look at their work.

"I feel like we're missing something." Lance says tapping a finger on his cheek.

"Gingerbread?" Hunk supplied with a twinkle in his eye.

"Definitely." Pidge agreed then headed into the kitchen. Lance followed shortly after.

When the two were gone Hunk stepped closer to Keith. The other was simmering and scowling quite fiercely. Hunk smiled apologetically. "Sorry for doing this to you. It's actually a tradition between us as friends. All of us have been the 'tree' at one point or another."

Keith grumbles. "Just cause it's a tradition don't mean you can do it to someone without explainin'." A touch of an accent shone through in Keith's speech.

Hunk chortles a bit. "If it makes you feel any better Shay was the 'tree' last year. She thought it was fun til she couldn't get to the gingerbread I made."

"From what I've had, your cooking is to die for." Keith said, his mood lightening up a bit from Hunk's chipper mood.

"Thanks. But my true strength lies within my pastries and baked goods. You'll see." Hunk said sounding slightly mischievous.

Keith was about to ask another question when Lance and Pidge came in with a plate of gingerbread ornaments. That's when the faint pleasant aroma hit Keith full blast. Almost instantly his mouth watered and his stomach threatened to growl. Lance saw the expression on Keith’s face and laughed. Keith sulked a bit at the prospect of not being able to eat any of the gingerbread that the two had brought in. Pidge smiled and gave their plate to Hunk to hold onto.

“Sorry not sorry Keith, but you have to deal with it for a bit so we can finish decorating you.” Pidge says as they hang a few gingerbread ornaments on Keith.

“Can’t you guys just forgo this tradition in favor of Hunk’s gingerbread?” Keith asked as he tried to wriggle out of the decorations that he had been wrapped up in.

“No can do Keith. We still need post you on Instagram. Then we’ll let you go.” Lance winked as he hung a gingerbread person over Keith’s forehead.

Keith blushed a bit but frowned at his situation. And so he stayed there, stuck wrapped up in Christmas lights with ornaments hanging from the wires. Soon the other three were finished decorating, the lights strung on Keith had been plugged in, and Pidge had snapped a picture of a fully decorated Keith with Lance and Hunk posing on either side of him. After a good laugh they started to unravel Keith from his festive prison. Jokes and teasing tones were exchanged. Keith was still pissed about being held captive for so long but was convinced to at least stay out in the living room with the promise of a whole plate of Hunk’s gingerbread cookies for himself. With the promised plate of cookies in his lap and a comfortable spot on the couch, Keith watched the others busy themselves decorating the real tree along with the rest of the apartment.

Just from watching, Keith could tell that Hunk, Lance and Pidge were all super close from the way that they interacted with each other and communicated. Christmas was never really a good time for Keith because through most of his years growing up he was usually being shuffled between different homes. The only year he could think of that he’d had a somewhat permanent home was when he was neighbors with Shiro. Keith was pulled out of his thoughts when Pidge let out a startled yelp and fell to the floor tangled in various strings of Christmas decorations. Keith chuckled and watched as the others went to Pidge’s side to help them out of their predicament but not before taking a few pictures of the entangled Pidge. Pidge snapped at them, steam practically coming out of their ears. Lance and Hunk laughed at Pidge but it was all in good fun.

As everything unfolded, Keith got a bit of a warm feeling in his chest. The kind of feeling that all of the Christmas movies were based on. Then it hit him, maybe this year he could have the Christmas that he couldn’t have while growing up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been trying to get all of the cute holiday prompts in order for a bit but I couldn't get my brain to focus on it since it's FREAKING MAY RIGHT NOW!!! So now I'm repeatedly listening to my Christmas playlist to try and get back into that frame of mind for at least a little bit so that I can get y'all your chapters. DX
> 
> I came up with this tradition that they did because it's something my siblings and I would do when decorating our house. :) I can't wait to write out what kind of shenanigans happen on Christmas Day. -w-
> 
> Question: Can anyone place where Keith's accent is from? ;)


	9. Christmas Shopping Horrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge forcibly recruits Keith to go Christmas shopping with them. Which ends up with Keith finding out just how much money his Youtuber friends make. Then ends with some small talk and present wrapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! A new chapter after over a month of waiting! Sorry for all of you that are probably sick of my Christmas themed chapters as of late, but that's what I had in the original so I'm going that way. On a better note you only have like 2 more Christmas chapters before we get to New Years! :D Thank you for your support and happy reading!

Keith woke up earlier than he would’ve liked. Seeing as it was a Saturday Keith didn’t have any classes and he was glad. When he finally dug himself out of bed he found Pidge in the kitchen, staring at their phone as they ate a bowl of cereal. Keith didn’t even bother with saying good morning. He just went straight to the fridge and grabbed his routine protein shake and Voltron. When he turned back around he found Pidge staring at him. Startled by the sudden attention Keith froze for a moment before setting his protein shake down on the counter. As he cracked open his Voltron Keith kept his eyes on Pidge for fear of something bad happening. There was an incredibly long silence between the two roomies where the only sound was the carbonation from Keith’s energy drink.

“You’re coming Christmas shopping with me.” Pidge says bluntly before returning back to their phone.

Keith choked a bit on a mouthful of Voltron. He sputtered before he responded in a slightly panicky voice. “What? Why do I-“ He coughed a bit, not entirely recovered from almost breathing in the carbonated drink. “have to go shopping with you?!”

Pidge shrugged, not bothering to look up from their phone. “Cause you’re here and I still need to do all of my shopping.”

“But there’s still nearly three weeks before Christmas!” Keith was becoming more desperate because he did not like Black Friday shopping with the McClains and was fairly certain that he wasn’t going to like Christmas shopping with Pidge.

“Mmm, yeah but I’d rather not have to fight the Christmas Eve crowds if they can be avoided. Usually I’d do everything online but Christmas is special so I actually go out to real live stores and buy presents.” Pidge says still staring at their phone as they eat more of their cereal.

And that’s how Keith was dragged out of the apartment and forced into doing some Christmas shopping. Admittedly Keith was resentful of his dashed Saturday plans that consisted of laying around the apartment and maybe catching up on several anime that he’d missed out on in the past couple of months. Yes, Keith was an anime nerd. So what?

Keith didn’t particularly dislike being hauled from one store to another. What he really hated was the weight of Pidge’s bags as they began to accumulate and pile up on his arms. After about three hours of shopping Pidge deemed it time to take a break and eat some lunch before heading back out to possibly finish shopping. They both decided on Subway.

Keith plopped down on a chair and unloaded the bags from his arms onto the surrounding floor. He had told Pidge what he wanted on his sandwich. Pidge had offered to pay for lunch since they had forced this shopping trip onto Keith last minute. Keith rubbed his forearms and biceps, trying to get the soreness of ten shopping bags on each arm to go away. When Pidge brought over their sandwiches Keith gratefully took his and began devouring it.

When he had finish one of the six inch sandwiches, Keith sighed contently and started on the next one. After a quiet lunch Pidge proceeded to spend a crap ton more money than what they should’ve had.

Currently Keith was sitting on a bench in the middle of a busy mall. Presents piled around his feet in messy heaps. Pidge had run off to another store to buy more presents. As Keith sat on the bench he scrolled through his phone. Earbuds plugged in and music now blasting through them into his ears. He had been there for a bit when he felt someone tap on his shoulder and he looked up. Keith was startled to see both Lance and Hunk standing off to his right. Keith pulled out one of the earbuds, looking up at the pair of friends with a bit of a surprised expression.

“Uh, hey guys. What are you doing here?” Keith asked tentatively.

Lance gave Keith a warm smile. “We’re window shopping for Christmas presents. Unlike Pidge, we scout out everything before buying up the whole store.”

“We’ve found a few things that would make perfect gifts for certain people but we haven’t bought anything yet.” Hunk adds with a smile of his own.

“Cool.” Keith responds, not sure of what to say.

“Are you shopping too?” Lance asks with a radiant smile.

Keith sighs. “No, I’m just being used as the pack mule. Pidge has dragged me to at least six different stores. How do they have so much money? College students should not have this much money to spend.” Keith frowns as he tries to do the math in his head.

Hunk chuckles a bit and Lance bursts out laughing. Now Keith was really confused. What was so funny about how much money Pidge has to spend? It didn’t make any sense.

Soon after Lance’s bought of laughter had died down subsequently, Keith voiced his thoughts that had been swirling about in his head. “Why is it so funny that Pidge can spend so much? Don’t they just get it from their parents? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pidge leave the apartment for work. Do they even have a job? They have to have some sort of source of income to be able to live by themselves.” Keith starts to trail off and think of possibilities.

Lance moves some bags off of the bench so that he could sit down next to Keith. Keith only noticed his presence when Lance threw an arm across his shoulders. “Keith, buddy. Do you know how many subscribers Pidge has on their TechnoGeek channel?” Keith shakes his head, expecting Lance to tell him. “Two hundred thousand. 200k Keith. And with all of those subs come views and with views come ad revenue. Pidge makes between 50 to 180 thousand dollars every month. Yes, a lot of it goes into purchasing new equipment, gaming systems, and games to go with, as well as all the fun stuff like bills and living costs, but it also leaves Pidge with quite a bit of money left over.”

“Why the frick are they still living in an apartment with a roommate?!” Keith explodes a bit. Not necessarily sure about what to do with this new information he had just been given. “They could buy their own friggin’ house!” Keith continued to flail about in an unorganized manner.

Lance nods as he takes Keith’s reactions in stride, knowing that it was a bit much for Keith to process at the moment. He waited a bit before dropping some more bombshells. “That said, Hunk has what, you’ve got around 250, right?” Lance looks over to his friend in his yellow parka, asking for confirmation.

Hunk shakes his head. “The last I checked, I think sometime last week, I was up in the 290’s. So 40 thousand subs in the past six months.”

Lance whistles at the number. “You’re getting up there. Almost at my level.” Lance gives a devilish smile.

“Do I even want to ask how many subscribers you have?” Keith asks with a mild groan.

“Five hundred and twenty thousand, six hundred and forty-two.” Lance beams proudly at knowing the exact number of his subscriber count. Keith groans and roughly shrugs off Lance’s arm. “Hey, don’t think too much about it. I inherited quite a few from when Allura mentioned me in several of her videos. Not to mention that when she started to slow in her videos and then go on hiatus completely, I gained a good chunk of followers. Then the rest I gathered myself through my own charm and abilities.” He poked Keith in the arm, jokingly. “And you’re one of them. One of my Lovely Beauties.”

Keith cringed a bit from being called a Lovely Beauty. It was a thing that Lance had picked up recently and started doing in his videos. For a lot of popular Youtube personalities they had a nickname or a pet name for their audience and so Lance named his Lovely Beauty. Keith had blushed the first time Lance had used it in a video and did for nearly every video since. But it wasn’t like Lance needed to know that. And so to cover up his blush Keith cringed instead.

Lance laughed and it made Keith feel his blush intensify. Hunk smiled at his two friends. They continued talking for a while. Just small things like how Keith’s teaching job was going, it was horrible with the winter holidays coming up, and about the special Christmas videos the two Youtubers were planning on posting later that week. Soon Pidge joined them, along with at least another dozen shopping bags from four different stores, and they all went home.

Hunk and Lance were recruited to help drag all of Pidge’s shopping bags back to their car that was in a parking lot down the street. As they all walked they were exposed to a bright and festive atmosphere. Colorful Christmas displays took up most of the windows, Christmas carols were sounding from various stores and they even passed a group of carolers that they stopped to listen to for a bit before moving on. Festive decorations wrapped themselves around light poles and traffic lights and hung across the streets to the other side and back, over and over, all the way down the street and farther still.

Soon they reached Pidge’s car and miraculously were able to fit most of the shopping bags into the trunk. The most fragile of the presents were stored in the cab with the other passengers. Lance and Hunk were able to carefully squish themselves into the back with all of the presents stored in the seats. Keith rode in the front with a massive present in his lap that he swore weighed the same as a small child. They all got home and were able to get everything up to Keith and Pidge’s apartment safely then said their goodbyes.

When the door shut, Keith flopped onto the couch, threw an arm over his eyes, and groaned. His arms hurt to high heavens but not as badly as his feet did at the moment. Keith lazily tried to shrug off his parka while still laying on the couch. He succeeded but ended up falling halfway off the couch. Feeling too tired to really do much about it Keith laid there, head on the floor, chest off the couch and legs splayed over the back of the couch and the armrest. Keith gazed around their living room. Everything was bright and sparkling, the lights on the tree were plugged in as well as the other strands of lights hung on the walls and over several surfaces. Pidge’s stocking had been hung on the left side of the tv. On the other side was a paper that read 'RESERVED FOR KEITH’S STOCKING’ and then under it was a little drawing of a stocking and a tiny bunch of cartoony holly hanging off of it.

All in all, it looked like a picture perfect scene that you should only find in Hallmark movies and magazines. It looked like majority of the foster houses Keith had stayed in throughout the ending of his childhood and into his teens. Even with all of the ‘perfect’ Christmases he had throughout his stay in all of those foster homes, Keith always felt like an outsider. Like he didn’t quite fit in even though he was being included in all of the various traditions and such that every family had. The only time he had really felt like he even remotely fit in during Christmas time was when he had shared the holiday with Shiro for two years before he left.

Suddenly Keith was shaken from his thoughts by a certain roommate throwing rolls of wrapping paper on top of him. In surprise, Keith fell the rest of the way off of the couch as he tried to catch all of the falling rolls.

“Pidge.” Keith growled at the short sandy haired gamer.

Pidge had a bit of smirk on their lips with hands on hips. “I need your help to wrap all of these.” They gestured to all of the presents piled on the dining table and bar as well the ones stacked on the floor. “I already hid all of the ones that are for you so I don’t have to worry about you peeking. Just don’t tell everyone else what their presents are and we’ll be good to go.”

Keith glared at Pidge a bit, arms full of wrapping paper and now standing on sore feet. “I just helped you lug all of these around the mall and then here. Do I really have to help you wrap them all? And just who in the world did you buy all of these presents for?” Keith low-key demanded.

Pidge ignored the glare and moved over to the dining table to start clearing off a spot to wrap presents on. “I bought presents for my family, Hunk’s family, and the majority of Lance’s. There are a few things that I do have to order online. Lucky for me I still have tons of time to get everything ordered and shipped to me in time for Christmas.” Pidge says as they spread out some red and green plaid wrapping paper on the table and teach for some scissors. They find a pair and pull out a pink colored box from a Disney Store shopping bag. Keith assumed that it was a doll of some sort for a sibling or one of their friends’ siblings. “Now get over here and help me wrap up these presents. I still have a few hours before I have to turn in and finish editing my latest video. I need to get it posted soon.”

And so with a sigh, Keith helped Pidge wrap the insane amount of presents that they had bought that day. Several hours past and Keith learned something from the hours of Pidge deciding to try and fill the silence with random rambling before they gave in and put on Christmas carols.

Pidge had one sibling, an older brother named Matt. Their parents lived in Vermont as well as Matt but on the other side of the state. Matt worked at a robotics lab but wasn’t able to say much about job specifics. Pidge’s dad also worked with robotics but more on his free time as he was now retired. Their mom helped in the community and did the occasional humanitarian trip.

Hunk’s mom made the best pies in the world. His dad on the other hand could cook like none other. He had an older sister that he didn’t talk much about and never made it out to family gatherings and such. He did have three younger siblings; a pair of 10 year old twin girls and a 6 year old brother. Hunk learned all of his cooking and baking skills from his parents. He tended to dote on his younger siblings, making them various treats and such.

Lance had a massive extended family. Keith experienced that first hand at Thanksgiving the previous month. But from Pidge told him, Lance had three more relatives that had children that hadn’t attended Thanksgiving. It was insane to think of just how huge Lance’s family was.

And now that Pidge had stopped rambling they sat quietly, the room filling with the sound of wrapping paper being cut and the ripping of tape from the dispensers on the table. The tv playing soft yet lively Christmas carols. Most of which were sung by Pentatonix. Soon Pidge excused themselves to go and finish editing their video. Keith opted to finish wrapping as many presents as he could. It was calming, the carols and the sound of cutting paper. Before he knew it, it was nearly two in the morning. Well, at least it was Sunday so he didn’t have to work. And so he got ready for bed and settled into his comfortable nest of blankets and quilts for a good night’s sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, Pidge's 'salary' is more or less guesstimated. I did a bit or research online but couldn't really find anything solid on how much a quote unquote 'popular' Youtuber would make. So I went off the basis of each view equals $1. Hopefully that is ok because I'm sticking to it. I realized that I hadn't really flushed out Hunk's family or the kind of situation of Pidge's so I did a thing and had Pidge ramble on about things. Hopefully that didn't seem too OOC for them. ^_^;;;
> 
> Also!!! VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!! I have decided to try my hand at updating weekly. I do have a family reunion next week so I will have to see what I can do. :)
> 
> Again, thank you so much for all of your support for this fic on mine! ^w^


	10. Super Anime Nerds Unite!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance drops in for an 'early morning' visit, makes breakfast, and finds out that Keith likes anime too. Then cue the fanboying over the adorable ice gays. ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that this is late! I was up coming in Idaho with family and there is no service to post or update or anything. DX I just got home so I'm posting this now.
> 
> Heads up there is anime references and it ties in with another couple of chapters but it isn't a super prominent thing that will be in this fic. Just kind of a thing that is more of a hobby than something that has a large portion of their lives like dancing or YouTube vids and such. :)
> 
> Now on with the story! XD

Keith was enjoying his rare weekday off by sleeping in. Sleeping til nearly noon which was weird that he hadn’t slept in later but Keith didn’t care much about that. When he did wake up, he lazily scrolled through his various social media accounts while still swaddled in the several quilts, comforters, and blankets that he kept on his bed during the winter months. Especially now that he had moved up so far north from where he was originally from. Keith smiled at the posts that his former roommates and coworkers shared. There was a knock on his door maybe ten minutes after he had woken up. Keith checked the time and groaned. It was just past ten in the morning, what did Pidge want?

"What do you want Pidge?" Keith called from his comfortable cocoon of warmth.

"There's a special someone at the door for you and he said that he's not going to leave til he sees you." Pidge answered back, the door muffled their voice slightly.

Keith groans again. Why in the world was Lance up this early? And coming to bother him on his day off no less. "Kaaaay." Keith draws out the word in exhausted exasperation. "I'll be out in a bit. I have to figure out how to get out of here first."

"Kay whatever. Just make sure you guys don't start making out while I'm still here. Just say the word and I'll be outta here faster than a kangaroo on Texas pavement in the middle of July." Pidge chirps, a smug tone sneaking into their voice as they feigned innocence.

Keith had been detangling himself from his blankets when Pidge said all of this. When Keith finally processed what he had just heard he completely froze in place before unmajestically toppling to the hardwood floor. He landed with a loud 'thump' and a muttered 'ooumf'. The pain that shot up his right side only multiplied his need to throttle Pidge with one of their game controller wires. 

"PIDGE!!" Keith shouts as he scrambles to get to the door. His face is burning red and he trips once before getting to the door.

When he rips the door open Keith can see the tail end of Pidge's escape into their room before they slam the door shut. Keith grumbles under his breath before venturing out to see what Lance wanted this early in the fricking morning. As he passed Pidge's door he slammed a balled fist onto the surface once before continuing down the hall. Keith yawned and scratched the back of his head as he came around the corner. He scanned the room lazily before he caught sight of Lance lounging on the couch staring at his phone in his hand. It looked like he was still in his pajamas. Lance wore baggy black and gray fleece pants with an over sized blue sweatshirt over a similarly sized purple shirt. 

"Hey." Keith called out as he came from the hallway.

Lance looked up from his phone and smiled at Keith. "Morning!" He said cheerily, a bright smile spreading across his face.

Keith cringes away from the uppity attitude of his next door neighbor. "Ew. Why are you so happy? It's not even noon yet and I haven't had my regularly scheduled Voltron yet." Keith gripes as he makes his way from the living room to the kitchen to grab said energy drink.

Lance sits up and watches Keith go to the fridge to grab a 'Fiery Wrath' flavored Voltron. Keith cracked it open and took several large gulps. When he finally stopped so as to take a deep breath, he sighed and looked over at Lance. Ok, it was more like a glare but Keith hated mornings. Especially mornings on his days off.

He was originally going to ask Lance why the frick he was here but when Keith saw the look Lance was wearing his question turned into a different one. "What? Have you never seen someone drink a Voltron before?” Lifting up the can and swishing the contents inside to punctuate his point.

"Not this early in the morning. Please tell me that you're going to eat breakfast, and don't you dare tell me that that drink is your breakfast." Lance says as he moves to kneel on the couch as he leans forward onto the backrest.

His nose is scrunched up in the cutest way and...wait, what?? Did Keith just seriously think that? Did that thought really come from Keith? Keith stared at Lance again and realized that he was waiting for an answer.

"O-oh, no, ha, no of course not!" Keith said awkwardly as he looked into the open fridge and pulled out a protein drink. "These are for breakfast." Keith holds the drink up so that Lance could see it before he shut the door to the fridge and turned to set down his Voltron on the counter. When he turned back to Lance, the disgusted scrunchy nose look was back on his face and in full force. "Ok, fine.” Keith sighs, not wanting to deal with this so soon after waking up. "What do you have for breakfast?" Keith questions as he roughly sets the protein drink on the counter next to the can of Voltron. He was starting to get a bit agitated by Lance's behavior.

"Hunk usually makes something from scratch, usually eggs and pancakes, or waffles depending on what he's feeling. Occasionally he'll make something for one of his videos and we'll have the leftovers the next morning." Lance says in a very informative tone.

"Well, good for you. I have the computer geek as a roommate, not the world famous chef." Keith said in a slightly agitated tone as he drank some of his chocolate flavored protein shake.

"I could always bring something over if you want." The way Lance said it made it sound like more of a statement than a question.

It made Keith do a bit of a spit take into the shake bottle. He quickly tried to swallow the small mouth full that had survived through the spit take but it made him cough a bit. Lance gave Keith a concerned look but before he could do anything Keith straightened up and caught his breath. He motioned for Lance to continue talking.

Lance furrowed his brows before speaking again. "I, I know that Pidge doesn't eat much, at least nothing healthy, and it looks, like..." Lance trailed off a bit, still concerned about Keith. "Dude, are you ok?"

Keith coughed a bit before answering. "I'm fine. It just went down the wrong way." He coughed a bit more and pounded his chest two or three times. "Breakfast sounds good. I guess I should probably eat something."

Lance brightens and gets up off of the couch. "I may not be as good as Hunk but I know my way around the kitchen." Lance smiled and Keith's heart skipped a beat.

"Uh um, yeah, sure. I did some shopping yesterday. Just don't go too crazy and you have to clean up after yourself." Keith says in a low voice, almost sounding embarrassed at the thought of Lance making him breakfast.

Lance beamed and got to work. He knew where everything was from when Pidge would invite him and Hunk over for dinners and such. As Lance moved from one counter to the next, jumping between tasks, he hummed a soft tune. Probably a Christmas carol or something along those lines. Keith moved so that he was sitting at the small bar that they had on the other side of one of the counters. As Keith watched it was almost like Lance was dancing to his own beat that Keith could just barely hear. He was completely entranced by the way Lance moved that Keith was startled when Lance set a plate in front of him piled high with scrambled eggs with two pieces of toast on the side. Keith wasn't aware that they even had bread in the apartment at the moment. Keith looked up at the other, wonder played out on his face.

Lance gave him a slightly nervous smile. "I didn't know how you liked your eggs and you didn't answer me when I asked you. So um, I hope scrambled is ok. Sorry if they're a bit bland. You guys don't have the amazing array of seasonings and spices that I'm used to." He chuckled nervously as he set a plate of eggs in front of Keith. 

They sat in silence as Keith ate and Lance busied himself with cleaning up. Keith watched as Lance walked around the small kitchen and washed dishes. When he was finished Lance collected his plate and put it in the dish washer. Keith sat at the bar and continued watching Lance. Lance glanced up and caught Keith's eye. Keith blushed red and turned away. Smiling softly Lance turned back to the pan he was washing.

They talked a bit, small things. And those small things lead to Keith finding out that Lance liked anime. Keith wasn’t much of a hardcore fan but there were a few that he watched and kept up with if they were ongoing. Lance on the other hand loved finding characters that challenged his knowledge of stage makeup. He had a separate channel just for his cosplay and stage makeup tutorials. Not many people knew about it but that was just fine by Lance. They talked about which anime they watched and kept up with.

"So the newest episode of Yuri on Ice came out earlier this week. Do you, maybe, wanna watch it with me?" Lance asked casually as he scrubbed the pan he had made the eggs in.

"Really? I haven't been keeping up on it so I still need to watch last weeks episode and this weeks as well." Keith says and avoids Lance's gaze by twiddling his thumbs and picking at his fingernails absentmindedly.

"I can bring over my laptop and we can watch them together if you want." Lance smiles and looks over to see Keith look so adorable with nervous ticks trying to distract from looking directly at Lance.

"Mm yeah." Keith says softly. "Sounds good. I think I have some snacks or something around here to munch on. Though I think I can convince Pidge to help me get it up on the tv." He says before looking up to see Lance smiling at him from where he's standing by the sink.

"Awesome. When did you want to meet up?" Lance asks in a lighter tone.

"Um, around one or so?" Keith says, he sits up a bit straighter.

"That works for me! I'll see you then?"

"Uh, yeah! I'll see you then." Keith answers shyly. "Here, let me walk you to the door."

Lance nods and they travel the short distance to Keith's front door. Lance waves at Keith before walking down the hall to his own apartment. Keith's smile seems to be a bit strained. As soon as the door is shut and locked Keith sighs and rests his forehead against the cool metal of the door.

"You two are so lovey dovey that it makes me want to puke just by watching you." Keith lets out a startled noise as he flips around and stares at Pidge whom is just chillin' and leaning against the wall next to their bedroom door. "You guys are so awkward about everything. It makes me want to shove you in a closet and hope that you can just talk about everything and that it'll just work out."

"Pidge!" Keith yells as soon as his startled state disappeared. "You're a complete and utter pain in the butt! You're the one who says unnecessary things!”

Pidge didn’t say anything, they just gave Keith a look that said that they had plans for the future before turning and making their way back to their room. Keith stared at Pidge as their figure vanished into their room. Keith tsked and followed Pidge. He walked past his roommate’s room and to his own. As soon as he closed the door Keith sighed and flopped onto his bed. Why was this so hard?

\---

Freshly showered and dressed Keith answered the door at 1:02pm. On the other side of the door stood Lance. He was dressed down in a pair of black looser fitting work out pants and a baggy blue sweatshirt with Yuri, Victor, and Yurio printed on the front. Lance had a bright smile on and looked ready to watch Yuri on Ice.

"Hey! I brought over some pastries that Hunk made earlier. He said that I wasn't allowed to eat all of them and said to share them with you." Lance says in a chipper tone as he holds up the plates in his hands.

"That's nice. Ah, please come in." Keith says in a somewhat shy way. Why was he so shy? It wasn’t like he hadn’t hung out with Lance by himself before. And even if things became super awkward he could always drag Pidge out of their hiding place in their bedroom.

He opens the door further and lets Lance in. Lance walks into the apartment and toward the kitchen to set his plates of goodies on the counters. Keith joins him and sits on one of the bar stools. Lance looks up from the plates at Keith.

"So Pidge downloaded Crunchyroll on their PS4. They said that we could use it. They said that you had an account?" Keith says trying to sound nonchalant.

Lance smiles. "Cool! I’ll give you my account name and password so you can hook everything up. While you do that, I can dish you up some of Hunk's famous cooking. His pastries are the best."

"Yeah, sure." Keith got up from his seat and walked over to the tv.

After a bit everything was set up and the two were now seated on the couch with their respective plates. Keith had the PS4 controller and was scrolling through Lance's Crunchyroll account to find Yuri on Ice. He found it and started on episode 11. Lance joined him on the couch and they munched on Hunk’s delicious creations. They both watched the episode and there were very much feels. Keith got really into it and screamed at the tv a bit when the episode ended.

"Let's end it? LETS END IT???? Are you KIDDING ME?!?!" Keith was ranting as he moved to the next episode. "Yuuri, please, don't do this to Victor! You guys are just too perfect for each other." His voice became softer and tinted with sadness.

Lance laughed beside him. "I know right? Just get the next episode started!"

Keith grumbled in agreement as he played episode 12. They both stared at the screen with bated breath. The episode played on and the opening theme came on as a reporter talked about the Grand Prix Final free skate. The two were singing along with the theme and weren't quite paying attention to the subtitles. The two were on such an emotional high that Keith felt that after this episode he would be a wreck and Lance would probably be right there with him.

All throughout the episode there was much cheering and there were a few tears shed. Keith was so in the moment that when Yuuri's score came out he jumped up out of his seat and cheered so loud that Pidge emerged from their bedroom to see what all of the commotion was about. Lance was crying on the couch and clutching a pillow.

"Holy frick you guys are really loud." Pidge said flatly. Then went to the fridge to grab a green Voltron drink.

Lance and Keith ignored them in favor of watching Yurio's program. Keith sat back down and they both stared intensely at the tv. The two on the couch both jumped up and cheered loudly. Keith had tears welling in his eyes while Lance had tears streaming freely down his face.

"POINT TWELVE!!!! YURIO BEAT HIM BY POINT TWELVE!!!!" Lance was screaming.

They were both jumping up and down as they were screaming and cheering. And of course Pidge had set their drink on the counter in favor of pulling out their phone and filmed the two anime nerds fangirling in their living room. They just couldn't give up the beautiful opportunity for some great black mail. Black mail was something you should never pass up. The two calmed down a bit and finished the episode. By the time it ended Keith had shed more tears than he'd ever admit. Pidge slunk back to their room with their Voltron in one hand and their phone in the other.

They both sat there on the couch staring at the words on the screen.

See You Next Level!

"I guess we'll just have to wait for the next season." Lance says in a flat tone. It seems that he's been emotional drained from the events prior.

"Yeah." Keith agrees softly.

They sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Keith sighs and gets up from off of the couch. He turns to Lance and grabs the empty plate from next to him. He then makes his way over to the kitchen and deposits the plates in the dishwasher. From the couch, Lance stretches and gets up.

"I guess I should get going. You probably have other stuff to do." Lance says as he walks over to the door. "I can see myself out."

"Oh, ok. Bye! I'll see you later I guess?" Keith calls from the kitchen.

"Yeah! See you!" Lance answers as he closes the door.

"Bye!" Keith calls as he hears the door click shut.

Keith then proceeded to clean up the living room a bit before heading back into his room. Keith then spent the rest of the day watching Lance's videos on YouTube. Keith smiled a bit at the over excited Lance on the screen. With a bit of searching Keith found Lance’s cosplay makeup channel and promptly subscribed. As he watched videos for hours, he couldn’t help but notice the warm feeling settle in his stomach whenever he thought about Lance. Maybe there was something more to their relationship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the whole thing that happened while Keith and Lance were watching Yuri on Ice was actually my best friend and I's reaction to the final two episodes of the anime. The last episode came out on my birthday so we watched it together since she had come home for the holidays. :)
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading this! Hopefully I can keep up this weekly update thing and not leave you hanging for a month with nothing for you guys. ^_^;;; I've got a good start so I'm hoping to keep it up. :) Thank you again and I'll see you next week! :D


	11. Let's Go Ice Skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has become a bit ragged from the last minute paperwork from his teaching job as well as sorting through everything to get ready for the following Fall semester. Everyone is over for dinner, Keith just wants to go to bed, Pidge won't let him, and Allura arranges a 'date'. Also Lance realizes somethings. ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! I thought that I wasn't going to get this in on time but I did it! XD Also I have added the slow burn tag because I realized that nearly four months have passed in this fic and Keith and Lance aren't together yet. Oops. ^_^;;; So yeah, this fic is extremely slow burning because this is my first time actually trying to write a couple trying to get together instead of already being together. So sorry about not properly tagging that. DX Other than that please enjoy this chapter that I have written just for you guys! ^w^

A few days left until Christmas and Pidge was dragging Keith around to get last minute presents. After that there was a bit of end-of-semester paperwork to attend to. The day had been whisked away by busywork and Christmas shopping. Now Keith was sitting in the living room with Pidge and the rest, even Shay, Allura, and Shiro. They all gathered around the dining table with the exception of Hunk and Shay that were in the kitchen making an incredible smelling dinner. They had all gathered together for some sort of friend group tradition. It was Shiro’s first year as well as Keith’s. Shiro was there and getting as involved as he could whereas Keith sat separated, away from the others seeing has he had a few things to finish before winter break started.

From the laughter and happy talking Keith could assume that everyone was having a good time. He would at least try to interact but after finishing what needed to be done he just wanted to go to bed. He had classes tomorrow and with the holidays being so close his students would most definitely be somewhat distracted. So he needed all the sleep he could get to be able to deal with that without resorting to snapping and yelling at his students.

Soon Keith got up from the spot where he had tucked himself away with the intentions of going to bed. But was soon interrupted and deterred from his route to his bedroom by none other than Pidge.

Keith sighed and took his glasses off to rub under his eyes. He replaced his glasses before saying anything. “Pidge, I know that you won special rights and everything because of Overwatch or whatever. But I really would like to go to sleep.” His tone tired and annoyed at the same time as he basically glared at Pidge.

Pidge shook their head and crossed their arms. “Nope, I’m not letting you through. You’re going to enjoy at least ten minutes of this little 'family gathering’ before you can go to sleep. I can take your things to your room but you’re going back and joining us at the table, at least for dinner. I can’t believe that you’d rather sleep than partake of Hunk and Shay’s cooking.” Pidge clucked their tongue as they took Keith’s things then ushered him over to the dining table.

Once he had pulled a chair out, Keith sat down and face planted very dramatically on the table. Everyone stopped their conversations in favor of turning to Keith. Shiro looked at him with a fond smile seeing as he remembered when Keith did that more than once after a very stressful day at school. Allura and Lance gave Keith matching confused expressions. The two in the kitchen gave passing glances as they set dishes on the table, steaming hot and wonderful smelling. Pidge came in at that moment and sat in their own chair.

"Keith," Shiro asked softly, smile never fading. "are you having a stressful day?"

Keith answered him with a groan that matched his face plant in how dramatic it was. There were a few muffled words before he slammed his forehead onto the table. The action made several glasses shake a bit from the vibrations.

Shiro chuckles at the childish behavior. "Keith, even after all of these years, you're still the same."

"Shut up Shiro. This is the one thing I hate about teaching." Keith shifts so that he's looking up at everyone with his chin still on the table. "Paperwork. Not only that but I still have stuff to sort out for my return to Dallas next fall."

"What are you going to school for?" Allura asks politely, folding her hands in front of her on the table.

Keith finally sits up like a normal person before answering. "I'm getting my teaching certificate. If you haven't noticed, I want to be a dance teacher. That's why I applied for the temporary teaching position at the Castle. It helps build a resume for a more permanent job." Keith explains.

Lance looked over with intense interest. He knew that Keith wanted to become a dance teacher from when they had their little 'heart to heart' a few weeks back, but he didn't know that Keith was from Texas. Lance recognized that Keith did have a bit of an indistinguishable accent, Shiro sometimes slipped into it as well, but he wouldn't have guessed that they came from Texas. It was an interesting little tidbit of info that Lance tucked away for future reference should the need arise.

"I guess that makes sense. When I've seen you in your classes you are quite exemplary at teaching your students. I can tell that they love being in your class and learning what you teach." Allura compliments with a gentle smile.

"I love teaching the kids." Keith says with a smile, a genuine smile of happiness. One that makes Lance blush a bit and get a bit starry eyed at the other. "It can be frustrating at times and it's a ton of work but it's worth it to see them finally get a move. Or when they get through a routine for the first time without any mistakes. The glow they get when they they accomplish something they've worked hard on and for. That's why I want to be a dance teacher."

While Keith had been talking both Hunk and Shay had come and sat at the table. Everyone had been listening to Keith. He was so passionate about teaching that it surprised everyone. At first glance Keith was prickly and just barely tolerable to be around, but when you got him started about dance and teaching, it was like he was a whole new person. He became caring and soft. It was like Keith was a book with a lock on it. Closed off and almost cold to everyone judging him by his cover, but when he gave you the key and opened up he was someone you should hold onto forever.

And that's when it happened. Lance figured out what that squirmy, nervous, blush inducing feeling was. It was love. This revelation crashed over Lance as he watched Keith talk with the others. Shay asking him if he wanted any of the mashed potatoes or made-from-scratch rolls. Shiro telling more embarrassing stories about a young Keith whilst Keith accused Shiro of setting up several of the misadventures on multiple occasions. Hunk and Allura laughing along and adding their own comments and questions in between gaps in the conversation. Pidge was staring at a screen for a while before Shay plucked it from their hands and forced them to join in on the table chatter. And just like that, three words, three crucial words, formed in Lance's head. 

'I love Keith.'

Dinner went on, Lance caught himself looking at Keith longer than acceptable multiple times. Lance loved the way that Keith smiled, his attitude now more laid back as dinner progressed. He noticed that even with dark circles peeking through and tiredness prominent in his eyes, Keith's smile was radiant. Soon dinner was over and Lance was put on dish duty with Allura. The others were still gathered around the table, laughing about some story Hunk was telling.

Allura leaned over a bit, a dripping plate in hand as she handed it to Lance. "You like him and you know it. I even know it. But does he?" Allura says with a bit of a devilish smile.

Lance stopped drying a pan in favor of staring at Allura with slightly widened eyes. "'Llura!" Lance hisses under his breath, hoping that no one else heard what she had said. "Do we have to talk about this right now?"

"Yep." Allura answers as she turns back to washing dishes. "If we don't talk about this then you know that you won't ever do anything about it. It will go unsaid and then when he leaves and you haven't said anything what will you do? You'll just end up with regrets that you won't be able to fix. So say something, anything. If you don't then I don't want to hear your bellyaching about it later. All I'll have for you is a huge 'I told you so' and that's it."

Lance is quite throughout his sister's little rant but it did give him a bit of brain food. If he did end up not saying anything then he would most definitely regret it and it would stay like that for the entirety of his life. The worst that could happen is that Keith would shut him down, reject his feelings. It may tear a few holes in their friendship but the best situation would be the sweetest reward. Lance could confess to Keith and he would accept. They could do all of the cute couple things that Hunk and Shay did. They could hold hands and cuddle and maybe sneak a kiss in somewhere. At that thought Lance's face broke out in the most intense blush of the night. Kissing Keith would be amazing, but they had to take baby steps. Like actually confessing and Keith saying yes.

Lance sighs as he dries more dishes. "Allura, what am I supposed to do? During dinner that little like feeling turned into something else and I don't know what to do about it."

"The only way you can really do anything about it is confess. I can't really help you." Allura responds, drying her hands as she leans on the counter. "I've already told you my sappy story about how Shiro asked me out. I said yes so it shouldn't be too different for my little brother to do the same." She winks at Lance and he just snatches the hand towel away from her in annoyment.

"How am I supposed to do that? I may be smooth with the ladies but when I'm serious about someone I tend to fail and make a fool of myself." Lance frowns, basically pouting at this point.

"I think I can help you out there. I can see what I can do about getting you a date with Keith." A smirk plays on Allura's lips.

"Oh no, what are-" Lance starts before getting cut off by Allura.

"So Keith I heard you like anime." Allura says loud enough to catch everyone's attention.

Keith looks over at her. "Yeah, I'm not super into it but I do follow a few."

"Do you like that one with the ice skating?" Allura questioned casually.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Keith asks, not quite sure at what she's getting at.

"Well, I've been wanting to go ice skating again recently. I haven't been in years and I saw Lance watching it a while ago. He mentioned that you like anime too and I wondered if you liked that one. But back to the point, why don't we all go ice skating together? I know a rink that's open late that we could go to." Allura says in a happy voice before glancing over at Lance with a bit of mischief in her eyes.

Excited rumblings came from the small group in the apartment. In the end everyone agreed that they would all go ice skating. Then the only thing that they needed was a date and a time.

"We could always go tomorrow or the next day." Shay suggested.

"But it's Christmas Eve in three days and we have all of our family arriving within the next few days as well." Pidge says from their new perch on a bar stool.

"True." Hunk agrees. "I have the days off so I can do whatever. Although Christmas Eve is going to be crazy. My parents and siblings are arriving that morning and I need to pick them up from the airport."

"I need to go with you since my family should be arriving around the same time as yours." Pidge says.

Allura shifts so she's leaning forward on the counter. "Lance and I also have family coming in within the next few days but I'm sure we can get away for a few hours or more. Shiro, are your parents coming?"

Shiro shook his head. "No, they're visiting family in Japan. I stayed here because my passport won't come for another few weeks."

"Alright then." Allura says. "What about you Shay? Do you have family coming for Christmas?"

"No, my parents live in Samoa because my grandmother still lives there. My brother, Rax, goes to school on the west coast but won't be able to make it because he is a bit tight on cash with his tuition and living costs. So I'm going to spend Christmas with Hunk and you all if you'll have me." Shay smiles and leans into Hunk's side hug.

Allura's smile widens. "You are always welcome to our home for the holidays.” 

“So then why don’t we just take the chance and skate this Saturday? Christmas Eve would be a great time to skate. One of my student’s parents run an ice rink a little ways from here. We could go there.” Keith says, trying to add something to the conversation.

There were several nods around the room. Lance at this point had given up at trying to stop his big sister from setting this up and went to his somewhat happy place. Head buried in arms on the counter, Lance gave a thumbs up to the idea. He might as well enjoy the situation that Allura has all but thrust him into. At this point she had basically set up a huge group date with all of their friends, and Pidge. He knew that not only Allura would be trying to get Lance and Keith together, but Hunk and Pidge would most certainly join in as well. 

Lance sighs as the rest of his friends in the room continue to make plans about when and where they would all meet up for their outing. He glances up to take a look around the room. Soon his eyes settle on Keith. He was glancing back and forth between Hunk and Pidge as they talked about who was carpooling with whom. Keith had the cutest little smile on his face that made Lance’s heart do flips in his chest. Maybe everything would work out. Maybe Keith would give him a chance and let Lance take him on a date. Maybe they would find out that they really liked each other. Or maybe the universe would screw him over before throwing him into the deepest darkest pit of despair. That was a lot of maybes. Maybe he shouldn’t go with everyone to the ice rink. Lance shook his head and buried it once again in his arms. He knew that Allura would never let him live it down if he did skip out on this ice skating trip.

Well Lance knew he would have to man up at some point so it might as well be now. He made up his mind that by the end of the night of their ice skating trip he would ask Keith out. Lance just hoped that Keith would say yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bum bum buuuuuummmmm!!!!! Finally getting somewhere. Both Keith and Lance have somewhat come to terms with their feelings now let's see if they'll act on them soon. Don't worry, it won't take too long..... I think. ^_^;;;
> 
> Anyways! Every comment, kudos, and view you give this fic makes my heart sore and my soul sing. It also gets chapters done quicker without so many breaks in between. :) So please leave a comment! I'd love to hear what you like about the fic and if I need to improve anything! ^w^


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